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Dreamscape: End Of Silence

What frustration! You just know that Dreamscape is excellent, but the promo / sampler CD sent to Sea Of Tranquility was a bastardization of the real thing – just 6 tracks, and only 5 of those are actually from the End Of Silence album and one was from their 1999 album Very. No cover art, no CD insert, no lyrics – nothing. To make matters more difficult only 2 of the songs on our CD are full-length pieces from End Of Silence, and 3 are samples. Worst of all – our CD contained 3 minutes of a song called "The End Of Light". The song sounded as if it was building up to something on a grand scale, but couldn't quite get out of the starting blocks. Well the reason was quickly explained with a visit to the band's web site. We got just 3 minutes of a 21-minute epic.

Sincere reviewers will listen to an album again and again, picking up the common threads, searching for recurring themes, focusing on the structure of each song, and drawing conclusions based on many hours of concentrated attention. With an incomplete album containing truncated songs those findings are impossible, so we can only review what we have.

And what we have is a high degree of progressive metal musicianship, very good vocals from their new singer, a stellar rhythm section, and guitarwork to match the best in the prog-power-metal genre. The three full songs on the sampler disc were full, well-developed melodic pieces that fall somewhere between Dream Theater and Symphony X. Well structured, reasonable complex, average-length songs with a nod to classical disciplines and a nudge to the prog-power giants of the '90s. By all accounts Dreamscape's ProgPower V appearance gained them many new fans, and had everyone wishing this German 5-piece had released more than just 3 CDs since their debut record nearly 8 years ago.

So we regret that we cannot inform you about the full merits of this CD. If we had the opportunity to hear it in full there's no doubt our star-rating would be somewhat more favorable. Until then it sounds promising, but the sampler we received is just that – an unfulfilled promise.

Track Listing:

  1. Clockwork (6:14)
  2. Shorttime News (5:46)
  3. The End Of Light (20:49)
  4. All I Need (3:35)
  5. Silent Maze (7:33)
  6. Flow (7:12)
  7. More Than (6:22)
  8. Infected Ground (7:47)
  9. You Don't Know Me (7:02)

Added: April 5th 2005
Reviewer: Duncan Glenday
Score:
Related Link: Dreamscape's Web Site
Hits: 4056
Language: english

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» SoT Staff Roundtable Reviews:

Dreamscape: End Of Silence
Posted by Murat Batmaz, SoT Staff Writer on 2005-04-05 20:12:52
My Score:

The German progressive metal band Dreamscape has been around since 1986, however due to their music being "progressive" they had a hard time finding a decent label and get their artistic messages across. They've released a total of three albums, all with a different singer, but their new one End of Silence is the only one I have heard. I know their second disc Very has Hubi Meisel on vocals so I will definitely check it out since Hubi's solo material is very solid stuff.

End of Silence is said to be their best release to date with new singer Roland Stoll (also in Private Secret) who reminds me a bit of earlier James Labrie with more aggression and Andy Kuntz from Vanden Plas. The album is very heavy with plenty of aggression, groove, melody and power. All three aspects of "melodic prog metal" are served here. This is prog with all the relevant time signatures, tempo changes and long interludes; metal with its relentless heaviness and melodic with the uncompromising emphasis on melody. Roland Stoll never neglects to deliver the tunes with melody, even when he's hitting the highest notes. Keyboard player Jan Vacik, who also produced this amazing disc, has a great chemistry with the rhythmic bass lines and guitar riffs. The piano and his synth orchestration is stunning! What's even better is they're never used to overpower always leaving enough room for the guitar and bass work. Wolfgang Kerinnis is an exceptional guitarist and he is perfectly backed up by bassist Benno Schmidtler and drummer Bernhard Huber whose tone is really awesome! In this respect the band is a little reminiscent of Vanden Plas, Sun Caged and Threshold although references to Dream Theater's Images & Words era are still evident. The 21-minute epic track "The End of Light" is without question the greatest moment on this disc. This song serves all the purposes of the band's musical vision to the best.

Production-wise I am reminded of Pagan's Mind, but moreso sonically than musically. Pagan's Mind is definitely on the more power/prog side of the equation while Dreamscape plays a more complex, detailed, sharper kind of prog metal with immense emphasis on melody. Still the sonic similarity is there, though I definitely prefer Dreamscape, as much I may be in the minority here.

One of the funniest things I experienced listening to this CD the first time was on the eighth track "Infected Ground" when the song kicked in with an excerpt from a traditional Turkish song titled "Donulmez Aksamin Ufkundayim" and I wonder where they got that inspiration from but that was totally unexpected and interesting. "All I Need" is the only ballad on this 72-minute record and although it isn't the strongest song on the album it gives the listener his time to catch his breath. I am highly impressed by "Silent Maze" as well as "You Don't Know Me" which are both great songs displaying the emotional and lyrical depth of Dreamscape.


» Reader Comments:

Dreamscape: End Of Silence
Posted by tiago gehring on 2006-02-09 16:38:05
My Score:

I have to say that I really like this site, but this review is really not accurate - "End of Silence" is an absolutelly amazing album and what was here reviewed was not the CD itself but some kind of promo stuff. Anyway, please write a new review because, I have to say, I listen to a lot of prog/prog-metal and this is one of the best CDs I've ever heard... This review really doen't do justice to it.
[WEBMASTER'S NOTE: Terribly sorry you feel that way. We do the best with the CDs that are sent to us. Unfortunately, with 100's of CDs arriving each month, it is difficult--if not impossible--to try to make up for the promo CDs that some labels provide. If we do get the full CD at some point, I'm sure someone will take the opportunity to give it proper treatment.]

Dreamscape: End Of Silence
Posted by Wolfgang Kerinnis on 2005-08-09 08:58:48
My Score:

hi iam the guitar player of the band dreamscape.
you reviewed our last album (end of silence) but however you took a promo cd that we only use for give away in concerts! you are not able to review a cd by only samples! sorry that hurts!
best regards!
wolfgang




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