MELOTRONICAL

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Portugese composer and multi-instrumentalist Hugo Flores is the creative force behind FACTORY OF DREAMS, a project based around his compositions and the operatic vocals of partner Jessica Lehto. Their first collaboration "Poles" saw the light of day in 2008, and was followed by "A Strange Utopia" the year after. Two more years down the line "Melotronical" appears, and as with the past releases from this outfit it was released by the US label Progrock Records.

While "Melotronical" is a concept album and does have its progressive leanings, this is first and foremost a creation that will appeal to people with a taste for symphonic metal as I regard it. Dramatic music with an emphasis on stark contrasts and massive soundscapes is the order of the day, fleeting ethereal ambient and massive guitar-dominated themes coming and going, the latter more often than not sporting a richly layered symphonic backdrop, with high-quality female operatic lead vocals soaring on top. Those who find such a description tantalizing should seek out this disc, and I'll be surprised if Factory of Dreams doesn't manage to increase their fan base substantially with this release.

Portugal's Factory of Dreams' "Melotronical" is Goth Opera Metal featuring very strong speed metal blasts that are quite devastating at times. These are balanced by dramatic breaks with symphonic keyboards and piano motifs. The loud Devin Townsend style male vocals of Hugo Flores and counterbalanced by the beautiful operatics of soprano siren Jessica Lehto. Flores also plays everything on this, guitar, bass, keyboards, programming, the lot.

'Enter Nucleon' just pummels with hyper speedy blasts of distortion and majestic operatic vocals with the aggressive shouting of Flores. They make their presence felt here. It is followed by ambience on piano, and some gorgeous vocals of Lehto. When the blast beats stop for a sec and the make vocals crunch in my heart jumps. It just stops and starts with jolts that crash through the silence unmercifully.

Next on 'Melotronical' is a piano intro and some lovely chiming keyboards. It is dark and creepy atmospherics and Lehto's vocal intonations are nice. A grinding distortion warns us it is about to have an outburst of metal and then the riff locks in. I like the way she is singing over herself here. The duo are multi tracking themselves throughout. On 'A Taste of Paradise' a massive ultra fast metal riff grinds or a few seconds. As fast as I have heard for a long time. And the double kick drumming must be programmed.

An esoteric atmosphere of synth pads and acoustics begins 'Protonic Stream'. I like this part, very dreamy and ethereal, especially the spacey effects and echoed keyboard chimes. It feels a bit vampirish when Lehto comes in with vocals. Sounds exactly like Tarja-era Nightwish. Jessica's opera vibrato is sweet to the ears. She sings over herself often on harmonies and then the male vocals bring in a heavy feel. When it softens again it is a pleasure to hear the lovely female vocals again. When the time sig changes there is a rather creative musicality created.

'Into Oblivion' is a very beautiful song with Jessica taking centre stage caressing the ambience with sweet soprano. The metal crunches in soon and brings in the darkness. At this stage it is apparent that this is exactly the type of music of recent years that can be lumped in with the female lead metal of Within Temptation, Nightwish, Lacuna Coil, Epica and After Forever. I actually like these bands quite a lot but they are easier to listen to as they are actual bands with all members playing not just one man shows like this with a gorgeous opera singer thrown in for effect. That may sound harsh but I can't imagine how this band would play live with only one musician and an opera singer. The programming at times is overbearing and this is very formulaic music.

'Obsessical' begins with chiming keys, low distorted metal guitars hammering, and then a really good vocal from Flores. There is very fast speed metal in places, breakneck percussion, broken by keyboards and Jessica's high octave soprano work.' The guitars are too dirty to make out any brilliant riffs.

'Back to Sleep' has an ominous feel with thumping echoes and angelic vocals. Jessica sounds heavenly on the vocals here in the quietness of the soundscape. 'Whispering Eyes' is another slower song but with blitzing metal speed blasts. Both these songs really appealed to me especially Jessica's sensuous vocals. The balance of light and dark is perfect.

'Subatomic Tears' is a moderate tempo song with extreme blastbeats of percussion and riffing. Jessica is overpowering on opera as the riffs seem to grind on four chords. The sound in places is very techno programmed and the drum frenzy is simply ridiculously fast. It sounds like a swarm of angry hornets, in fact reminded me of "Ziltoid The Omniscient" for a moment. 'Dimension Crusher' is not the 'Planet Crusher' of "Ziltoid" but has the same type of speed blasting, the same type of make vocals, and is just as humorous. The real difference is of course Jessica's tones. She is beautiful in the quiet sections. I love the Lene Lovich high pitched squeals in this one.

'Echoes from Earth' begins with tribal drums and some layered female vocals. It breaks and chimes along for a while and I like the melody on this. Everything else sounds similar on 'Something calling Me' for a while then we get a cool retro synth and operatic vocals. This is a weird combo but it made me take notice. The song is 'Reprogramming' and it has some innovative music. It caps off a fair album designed for the Gothic metal fanbase.