Traditional Metal
It is easy for us Brits to scoff. For some reason, because this island spawned the likes of The Beatles, Radiohead and Black Sabbath, this gives us the right to look down our musical noses at foreign acts, especially those from Europe. We tend to forget that for every Radiohead there is a Take-That, for every Black Sabbath there is a Spice Girls. Any country that puts the Crazy Frog at number one for umpteen weeks shouldn't look down their musical nose at anyone. I say this because Sweden's Dream Evil are easy targets for our scything English wit. The title alone, 'The Book of Heavy Metal' creates titters amongst us. Their garb is straight from the extras of 'Mad Max' and their drummer, who looks like a modern day Viking in a bad mood, is called 'Snowy'. Apart from having the same name as Tin Tin's dog he also writes the lion share of the music and lyrics. I have learned a lesson today and that's don't judge a CD by it's members and song titles.
The reason I was interested in Dream Evil is their guitar player is wonder producer Fredrik Nordstrom. His work with such bands as Arch Enemy and Opeth is excellent so I was curious to find out what his own band are all about. With Fredrik at the production knobs it is almost guaranteed that this album would be nectar for the ears. It has a big 'metal' sound with one hell of a chunky guitar tone, even the weakest of material would sound great with this production. The title track opens this collection and is quite simply one of the best metal anthems I have heard in a long, long time. It's a slow fist puncher of the first degree that starts with Niklas Isfeldt screaming the word 'METAAAAAAL'. As soon as the drums pound, your head is nodding in time with the simple but crunching chord based riff. For some reason I had always thought Dream Evil to be power metal but they're just a metal band using bombastic riffs and chugging rhythms to pulverise the listen rather then use speed and technical ability.
I don't want to be accused of double standards and after criticising Tokyo Dragons' lyrics I feel I have to mention the appalling lyrical standard on this disc. Lines such as, "In life we have no religion besides the metal gods. Wear nothing but black skin-tight leather, my skin's clad with metal studs" are not only pure cheese but also dreadful. One could argue that Dream Evil have the excuse that English isn't their first language and to write verse in another tongue is always difficult but after hearing "I'd die to become immortal, that's why I sing this song", this isn't an excuse. Although full of crass clichés they are sung with such conviction that it becomes easy to brush over them no matter how awful they are. With Disturbed releasing 'Ten Thousand Fists', is 'The Book of Heavy Metal' so different in it's lyrical content? It's the same message just a different way of saying it.
The album doesn't get any better than the title track, but it tries very hard. Cuts such as 'The Sledge' and 'No Way' are great rockers in their own right. 'Let's make Rock' reminds you how good eighties metal was (if you lived through that period) and 'Crusaders' Anthem' adds something different using its big chorus and driving bass line to great effect. Niklas Isfeldt's vocals are superb, his style is very much like Ripper Owens choosing his falsetto screams well without over egging the pudding.
The tail of this album isn't as strong as the start with the ideas becoming less consistent. 'M.O.M.' is a pretty standard fare as is 'Only for the Night' and the less said about the acoustic ballad, 'Unbreakable Chain', the better.
If you're partial to the likes of Dio, Ozzy Osbourne and Judas Priest then I seriously suggest you check out 'The Book of Heavy Metal'. Dream Evil are difficult to take seriously but you can tell they love their metal and they'd like to tell you how much they love it. It may not be the greatest album ever made and it certainly isn't heavy metal's bible. If you're fed up of emo whiners, radio friendly corporate rock, scream core, American pretty boy rock bands moaning how bad high school is and all the other bandwagon styles at the moment and you want to hear what made metal great in the first place then give 'The Book of Heavy Metal' a try. It is heavy metal in its most traditional form.