Dreamland - Eye for an eye 3.5/5
Reviewed: 3-13-07
Tracklist:
1. Eye for an eye
2. Carousel of pain
3. Reverse deny
4. Secret signs
5. Chosen ones
6. Spread your wings
7. Shadows of the night
8. Heavenly designed
9. Children of tomorrow
10. Forever and ever
11. Revolution in paradise
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After a great debut CD entitled ‘Future’s calling’, helped along by Hammerfall’s Joacim Cans, who co-produced the CD and appeared as a guest vocalist, the awaited 2nd CD has arrived. Entitled ‘Eye for an eye’, it continues the trend of heavy/power metal heard on the debut. Although it’s fairly obvious that Dreamland are Hammerfall worshippers and the music is very similar to theirs, ‘Eye for an eye’ tends to move away from that typical Hammerfall sound. In fact, I found more similarities with another young band called Machine Men, especially with the way they sound on their current new CD, ‘Circus of fools’.
Dreamland vocalist Joacim Lundberg (do you want any more similarities with Hammerfall) is one talented singer, again drawing similarities with Machine Men’s vocalist, Toni Parviainen. He has a superb range, loads of emotion, and a decent set of lungs. On both Dreamland CDs, his vocals are just one of the many highlights.
As for the new CD ‘Eye for an eye’, Dreamland have a more matured sound than from their debut. Although that may sound good, the excitement and exuberance that was on ‘Future’s calling’ has slipped a little with the new release. It sounds more laid back, melodic and structured, but the awesome twin guitar blasts and ripping solos are still present. The matured and structured sound however, makes this CD seem a little uninspired and somewhat inconsistent. The quality of the songs range from average to very good, but there are no “killer” tracks.
Still, that being said, some of the better tracks on the CD, in my opinion, would be the title track “Eye for an eye”, “Chosen ones”, “Shadows of the night”, “Children of tomorrow” and “Revolution in paradise”. The best track on the CD would be the mid-paced rocker, “Forever and ever”. It’s almost a ballad, but is still rather heavy with a great whole band shouted chorus.
Overall, I wouldn’t say I am disappointed with ‘Eye for an eye’, but I will say that it is not as good as their debut CD. I feel that it's just missing something which was apparent on ‘Future’s calling’. Which step this band takes for their 3rd release is up in the air at this point, but I’m hoping it will be a mix of both CDs, and hopefully Joacim Cans continues to help this band as he has done a fine job so far.
SEAN
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