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DREAM EVIL - Evilized |
Century Media | |||||
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Posted: 10/31/03Reviewed by: Goat Category: Power Metal / Heavy Metal Released: 3/25/03 Label URL: www.centurymedia.com Artist URL: www.dreamevil.se | |||||
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The brainchild of legendary producer Frederik Nordstrom, Sweden's Dream Evil is a straight-forward, traditional/power metal band. In Dream Evil, Nordstrom gets to step out from behind the console and strap on a guitar and crank out some power chords. Along with vocalist Niklas Isfeldt (HammerFall), second guitarist Gus G. (Firewind, Mystic Prophecy), and utility drummer Snowy Shaw (King Diamond, plus countless other bands), Nordstrom put out DragonSlayer, Dream Evil's debut album.
Evilized continues in the same vein, with short, catchy metal anthems. The tracks are generally mid to up-tempo, but the band puts the brakes on just enough so as not to enter speed metal territory (if they did, they would sound too similar to HammerFall). There are plenty of sharp riffs and solos, and tracks like "Break the Chains," Fight You 'Till The End," "Invisible," "Children of the Night" provide a perfect blend of metal and melody (by the way, for all you 80s fans, there are no covers of Dokken, Dio, or Whitesnake songs on this album). They slow things down a bit on "Evilized" and "The End," although these are still decent tracks, however the obligatory ballad "Forevermore" could be skipped. The musicianship is top notch, and Nordtrom has obviously learned a lot about playing guitar from all those years tweaking the production knobs and watching others play. The songs aren't too original, and they have a familiar style reminiscent of other European power bands. Those into this style will find nothing wrong with the songs, and the album is extremely listenable, but I doubt there's anything on here that will knock your socks off either. The weak link here is the vocals. Isfeldt has a strong, clear voice, but its very generic sounding. He needs a little bit of anger to breathe some life into the songs.
The Bloody Truth: In all, Evilized, as a title, doesn't really describe the music too well, but that aside you certainly could do a lot worse.
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