DREAMTIDE – Dreams For The Daring

You want Dreamtide. You need Dreamtide. I know, you only have so many dollars/euros/yen/rubles/pesos. You can’t buy as much as you used to with your music dollar, euro, whatever. But that’s where I come in. Here’s where I command you to drop that pork chop, look in your sofa cushions for some change, and go buy Dreams For The Daring when it comes out on October 20th.

Dreams For The Daring is Dreamtide’s second effort following 2001’s Here Comes The Flood. Dreamtide features former Fair Warning members in guitarist Helge Engelke, drummer CC Behrens, and Thorsten Luederwaldt on keyboards. Olaf Senkbeil has the lead vocals, and Ole Hempelmann rounds out the cast on bass. Cutting to the chase: except for maybe Thunder’s Shooting At The Sun, this is the best album I’ve heard this year.

The first three songs come out and mule-kick you in the chest with hard guitars and harder drums. They throw in some keyboards, heavy bass lines, and great metal vocals for good measure. Dreamtide absolutely rips it up out of the box with “Dream Real”, “Live And Let Live”, and “I’ll Be Moving On”, and there’s little drop-off to the rest of the disc. “Eden” is almost a metal hymn, with background vocals that are choir-like, distant keyboards, big lead vocals, a building crescendo to the chorus, and crunching guitars. A “metal hymn” sounds like a band is asking for trouble, but this one is catchy. Other highlights include “Land Without Justice” and “Sweet Babylon.”

There are a couple of glitches. Dreamtide. Dreams For the Daring. Dream Real. Dreams Are Free. There’s a theme here, but I can’t figure it out. In addition, there are irritating synthesizer/keyboards in the background of “Dreams Are Free”, giving the impression there is a laser gun battle from Star Wars being waged in the studio. If they kicked in a Chewbacca roar, that would really kick ass. But absent a pissed-off Chewie, they’re just beeps. There’s a hint of techno flavor to this song and a few others, but it doesn’t get in the way of the rock for the most part. For those who suck up techno and its crappy, manufactured sound, enjoy.

There are alternative mixes to “Eden”, “Land Without Justice”, and “Live And Let Live”. These are unnecessary, but not bad. They don’t add a whole lot, but they don’t detract anything from the album, either. If you like them, great. They are good songs, both the originals and the alternatives.

Dreams For The Daring is only for those who like music. Crank it up before you go out on a Saturday night. Crank it up before you eat breakfast on Wednesday morning. Crank it … aw hell, you get the picture. If you don’t enjoy music, this album is simply not for you.