Jacobs Dream

Although it is always said, "don"t judge a book by it's cover", when it comes to music I'm not quite as sure. I often find the albums with exciting or provocative cover artwork more enjoyable to listen to as well. American band "Jacobs Dream" have made a new album with some of the most awesome cover artwork I have seen, but do they conform to this pattern? Indeed they do. The style that Jacobs Dream pioneers follows many other sub-genres, but blends them into an altogether original style containing qualities of the most extreme death metal, while drawing inspiration from the wildest hair metal! My god it's good though, extremely good, not flawless by any means, but in terms of listenability most of these flaws are simply of no importance!

The one feature that lets the band down more than anything else becomes apparent very early in the opening track, "Demon's World": the vocals. That's not to say that the voice is bad...indeed it is extremely good in most parts which makes my criticisms even more depressing! Without going in to too much detail, to me the opening riff demands a more harsh vocal tone. For an introduction we have a riff that, as with "Lake Bodom" from "Children of Bodom", is more like a complex solo but with simple underlying throbs from a second guitar part. The melodic intervals sound more like they should be written for brutal death metal, and this typically would be accompanied by harsh growls, but the voice here is much cleaner. This, however is not the problem; the problem is with the production of the vocals. I feel that not enough time has been put into the recording process as far as the singing goes.

At many points we hear slight decreases in volume and minor problems with intonation. Not large ones, but enough to make a negative effect on the overall mood of the music. That said, he has what must be one of the best power metal/Iron Maiden sounding voices that I have ever heard, and I am sure with a little more money invested in the album, this depreciation in excellence could easily have been avoided. Anyway, the music on the whole is stunning...the album is very much driven by harmonies, and we see that in the vocals but also between the two guitars. The riff work is fantastic and complex, often with one guitar part taking the lead over the other, the two working together to create a monstrous effect of simple headbanging riffs and, in some songs, bordering on the complexity of solos: a style that I expect to find on an 80's hair metal track! My favourite song must be the second. The introduction is just an extremely Pantera sounding heavy riff, which I found more appealing than all the others. Other than the fact that I preferred the opening progression, the song bears all of the same features I liked as well as disliked in the release.

Overall...a real quality piece of work. It is a shame that the vocals, and at some points the guitar, seemed a little out tonally, giving the impression of a rushed recording process maybe? Anyhow, overall very good. Once this band have a record company (which will happen!) I hope the recording quality will improve and with it the albums to come. I recommend this to all fans of power/progressive or even death metal music