Dreamslain
Tales of Knights and Distant Worlds

Not many bands get away with a long two disk release as a debut, and Dreamslain isn’t a band that do. Tales of Knights and Distant Worlds is the title of the Norwegian trio’s first album and it has a pretty decent painting for artwork, and it might seem exciting when we read that they don’t follow genre convention and the press material says it is for fans of bands like Manilla Road or Enslaved – that would indicate a dynamic album, but is it really?

It starts with prominent keys that draws the mind to the past, but then they add some terrible harsh vocals that doesn’t sound good any which way you look at it. And the vocals are the most noticeable aspect of the album, that and very long tracks where everything kind of melts together into one mass of poor growls and noises. I don’t know if it is the many influences or anything else, but the album feels unstructured and without direction, not really a well-made album.

When I first played this album, I remember thinking that it has to be joke, or one of those one-man bands where the creator doesn’t really know how poor he (it is always a man) is and just makes an album, not even when listening back at it does he realise that it is really bad. But this is a trio, three people who imagine that something that is so bad it seems like it is a joke can be worth releasing. I understand why no label has picked this up, there is nothing that is good about this album. Sure, there are positive things here and there, but it is hard to accept the weak vocals and the poor songs.

I don’t think anyone will like this album, maybe the three band members who appears to be missing any sense of self-criticism do but no one else. I think the most interesting and creative about this album is the press sheet that makes something so dreadful seem interesting, but then you hear it and realise that it is all bullshit. I did also notice that an online search didn’t yield a single really positive review of this album, there were more reviews in line with what I think – that it is a poor album. This trio has a long way to go if they want to make good music, I wonder if they ever will.

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