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Every genre of metal has it’s undeniable leaders, the Mercedes of metal, the cream of the crop if you will and in the pure/power metal genre those leaders include Gamma Ray, Blind Guardian, Primal Fear, Edguy and Helloween to name a few. Well if the debut album from Dream Evil is any indication of the type of work to expect in the future it will not be very long before they are mentioned in the same regards as the best in the business, hell they may already be there with the strength of this album alone. I usually don’t heap this much praise on a band for a debut for the following reasons…

A. It could be a fluke
B. It could just be simple luck
C. The sun shines on a dog’s ass every once in a while
D. I can be so jaded and stupid at times that even if I won the lottery I might bitch about the amount of taxes I would have to pay
E. I have been proven wrong before (as hard as that might seem to believe…heh)

Even with these factors included there is no denying that Dream Evil have created an album that simply kicks all forms of ass and I can almost guarantee will be in the top 5 of a lot of year ending lists. It is quite simply that fucking good.

Dream Evil is band formed by famed metal producer Fredrik Nordstrom (I would list the bands he has worked with but my fingers would cramp up before I was done) and includes a guitar whiz kid in the form of Gus G, Niklas Istfeldt (Vocals) who has helped out Hammerfall on a few occasions along with Ster Stalfors (Bass). On the drums you have the one and only Snowy Shaw (Ex-King Diamond, Mercyful Fate).

You can tell just from the pedigree of the band that these aren’t a bunch of newcomers to the metal scene and after listening to "Dragonslayer" you can definitely hear the experience as well. This is pure/power metal with incredibly catchy riffs and hooks that go on for days. One listen and the songs will burn themselves into your mind and it wont be long until you are murdering the lyrics in your own special vocal abilities. The songs are just that well written. One of the many highlights for me was the drumming of Snowy Shaw. In most power/pure metal bands the drumming is good but it doesn’t seem to differentiate itself from other bands but this is certainly not the case here. Shaw simply explodes on this album and this has to be some of the heaviest drumming I have heard for this genre. There must be some subliminal message included telling you to keep hitting the repeat button on your CD player because I have hit that button a good 30 or 40 times already…hell I am on track 10 right now and getting ready to hit repeat again… :)

Overall an album that really surprised me with its quality and for any fans of this genre or anyone with even a slight interest in this genre this is a one of those buy or die albums. If this review has left you torn with whether to buy the album or not you may very well be more jaded and stupid than I am and I just don’t think that is possible… :) HIGHLY HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!!!