Dream Steel - You 3.5/5
Reviewed: 5-9-08
Tracklist:
1. Frantic
2. The flight of a butterfly
3. Behind
4. You
5. Lost
6. Thin line
7. Dancing in the fate
8. Black gift
9. Neverstar
10. The flight of a butterfly (radio edit)
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It's well known that the progressive metal world and power metal world are both extremely massive, and it's sometimes the bands that sit in between these worlds that are the most successful. Evergrey, Kamelot and Vanishing Point are bands that immediately stand out to me, and newly introduced Dream Steel is attempting to follow the footsteps of these very successful bands. So Dream Steel's full-length debut 'You' can be labeled progressive power metal, quite similar to Evergrey, Vanishing Point and Serenity, but there is a hint of Kamelot.
One thing I want to emphasize right from the start is that if you have and love the many aspects of the popular aforementioned bands, this CD should greatly impress you. It offers up the same variety of tempo - there are some nice slow parts, plenty of speed, and it's quite heavy too. The keys are both in the background (providing a symphonic presence) and are upfront sometimes as well. The vocals of Alessandro Antonelli are clear and range from soft to fairly high-pitched, though I don't consider him to be one of the better vocalists for the style. Still, the aspects of this CD will sound familiar to the major fans of the aforementioned bands.
As for songwriting, Dream Steel definitely succeeds, as 'You' is very memorable. It's much more of a pleasant and melodic CD (as opposed to an extremely agressive one), with terrific guitar work and every song is solid to strong. There is not one song I don't enjoy, but at the same time, the CD never completely climbs to a consistently excellent level. 'You' is quite short too, with a running-time of just over 40 minutes, especially when you consider that the final song ("The flight of a butterfly") is just the radio-edit of track 2. I don't consider the short running-time to be a complaint however.
When I think about what Evergrey, Vanishing Point and Kamelot have provided us thus far, they're surely superior to Dream Steel at this point, but 'You' is a great start for the band and I know a lot of you will be very happy with it. So this debut comes with a strong recommendation, and the band is certainly one to watch out for.
CLINT
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