Avoid at all costs!

As I write, the atrocities committed in Paris in the name of some warped religious ideology (and like most right-minded people I know this has nothing to do with the teachings of Islam) are still headline news; quite why anyone would want to perpetrate such an act on innocents is beyond me – music lovers excitedly enjoying a concert or families spending quality time together in a restaurant – but my heart goes out to the French people in general and Parisians in particular [A sentiment shared by the entire Fireworks team – Ed]. We've had our spats with the French throughout history of course, but it's now time to stand shoulder to shoulder with them in defence of everything we all hold dear.

However (didn't you just know there'd be a but somewhere), that shouldn't extend to what amounts to a "free pass" on the Metal front to a band simply because of their nationality... yes, you've guessed it, Dreamslave (nice name by the way) are French; from Lyon in fact. A Female-Fronted Symphonic Metal act, the band issued an EP – 'Dreamslave' – in 2012, and has now progressed to a full album with the independently released 'Rest In Phantasy'.

First the sound quality (or lack thereof) leaves an awful lot to be desired – that could in part be due to being a download, but hey, even under less than ideal circumstances there's no denying this is messy, cluttered, and I'm afraid more often than not quite laboured. The vocals are frankly piss poor – flat, off key, or ridiculously pretentious (trust me, Tarja Turunen she ain't!) most of the time, their overlay on chugging riffs or hackneyed orchestration/keys enough to make you hit the "skip" button on average half a dozen times per song!

Talking of the songs, as I alluded to earlier, the arrangements are clumsy; they lack direction and conviction, and in the case of the godawful contrived 'Masquerade' they're bloody unlistenable! In a world where albums of this calibre would struggle to make the "Top 100 Releases" this week, I seriously can't think why anyone would choose to put themselves through tosh like 'Angel Requiem', 'The Vinland Saga' or 'Torments' (to name but three).

Seriously guys, ditch the singer because she's crap, stop trying to stitch together random selections from the Stratovarius, Nightwish et al back catalogues, and learn to write songs that people will actually want to listen to more than once! Avoid at all costs!

Dave Cockett