FACTORY OF DREAMS

One of my kids, when he was about a year and a half in age, had such issues regarding texture concerning food that I was forced to make these bizarre concoctions using a blender just to put some weight on the bugger. His favorite turned out to be my special creation, the "vanilla ice-cream and sweet & sour chicken frappe". Chances are, it probably tasted about as good as it sounds (I never crossed the Rubicon to try it myself), but it did the job in filling the tummy.

A Strange Utopia combines various appealing elements, and blends them together in such a way that I'm not exactly sure that what I'm digesting is necessarily healthy, but it's intriguing and surprisingly very tasty in an uncanny sense. Despite the neo-prog tag, this release sounds more like a gothic metal album gone hog-wild with neo-prog and occasional industrial influences, resulting in this mix of styles that can overwhelm the senses upon initial listens. There are times when a song morphs into a borderline chaotic mess of keyboard, guitar and violin soloing over battering drum programs and Jessica's vocal arrangements, like a chunky bit still in the frappe after blending, but focusing on one instrument reveals the potential for smooth and gorgeous moments.

Certain tunes possess elements of sheer beauty, such as "Slow Motion World", which begins in an otherworldly tranquil stripped down fashion before the inevitable crescendo of instruments and distortion start seeping into the sound, thus by the tune's end, it's all 'organized chaos'. Maybe, though, that's the point. Hell, the song "Chaotic Order" sums up the overall sound of this material quite well, musically and otherwise. The album's theme, concerning a Utopian vision that eventually falls apart since any sort of "enforced state of harmony" is doomed to eventually fail, accompanies the style of the music quite well.

Along with some ambient, texturally smooth moments, there are sections so jagged that it almost seems like two separate songs spliced together, such as the sudden neck- snapping shift near the end of "Garden Of All Seasons" that still cracks me up a bit after numerous listens. Real jarring, but deliriously engaging as well. Utilizing drum machines as opposed to a live drummer is fine for the more industrial and simpler rhythm sections, but sometimes during heavier moments, trying to ape a living drummer through the overuse of frantic drum rolls makes things a bit sloppy, almost sounding like a cyborg behind the kit in a state of minor malfunction.

Flaws aside, for the most part this is quality stuff. Hugo is fantastic on the guitar & keyboards, never letting his technical skills completely overwhelm the song structures, cramming in melodies just below the breaking point at times, but nevertheless, these songs are far more adventurous than many similar acts. Jessica compliments the music well, which is not an easy endeavor, and possessing a rich voice that veers between operatic and somewhat even witchy at times.

It's a bit of a mess on occasion, which can happen when blending appetizing dishes that maybe weren't originally meant to be consumed as one whole, but I found myself replaying this thing a lot, looking to dig out even more layers of cool and enticing moments during each listen. I can say this frappe went down easier than I was expecting.

Well, this album was a complete surprise to me - I couldn't believe I hadn't heard of it before. Quickest way to describe this band - Bizarro is to Superman what Factory of Dreams is to Nightwish. In a good way. There are a lot of sound related similarities to Nightwish I hear in this album, such as the style of keyboards and how they are mixed with the other metal elements, the singer often sounds like Tarja Tarunen. But the composition is what is surprising in this album. Vocal harmonies play a big role, and this band often will add in some odd dissonances on top of standard vocal harmonies. Another technique they use is to underlay a somewhat common sounding melody with rapid-fire kick drumming and rhythm guitars that often feature changing time signatures. These techniques take something that could be merely another female fronted symphonic metal act in the vein of Nightwish, and make the music incredibly interesting. This is going on my shortlist of albums to listen to again very soon.

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.

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.

Factory of Dreams should find a wide audience as it slots neatly into the genre originally created by The Gathering, and since enriched by luminaries such as Within Temptation, Nightwish, Edenbridge, Lacuna Coil, After Forever, and Epica - et al. It is goth metal, though the 'metal' label is used lightly, fronted by the rich soprano of Sweden's Jessica Lehto. But unlike its genre-mates, Factory Of Dreams isn't a band - it's a 2-person project, an Internet collaboration, with vocals and many arrangements provided by Jessica, while multi- instrumentalist Hugo Flores provides the rest.

Flores remains close to his sci-fi story roots with this one. If you're a fan of the progressive goth format of a semi-operatic soprano contrasting dark atmospherics and power-chord driven bass-heavy hard-rock, Factory Of Dreams is not far apart from others in the genre - but it's a pleasing listen, and has a lot going for it.

This second effort from Hugo Flores' Factory of Dreams is a step up from the début album, at least if you like his rather elaborate take on the operatic female vocalist sings metal type of bands.

Stark contrasts is a main feature of this album. Soaring and often operatic vocals take the lead when the guitars or synths are soloing, soaring over a musical backdrop where dark guitar riffs and lighter, symphonic textures creates a backdrop that itself is contrasting to the lead vocals or soloing instrument patterns soaring on top.

And while superficial listening will focus on those contrasts, the compositions are actually rather elaborate. Most of them features many shifts in pace, mood and stylistic expression, and there's quite a few detailed additions to these sonic tapestries as well. There are few really challenging features though, melody and harmony are the driving forces on these efforts, and by preference as parts of a big-sounding, melodramatic multi-layered progressive metal landscape.

In short: This is prog metal with operatic lead vocals and symphonic backdrop, and warrants to be checked out by those who generally enjoy bands of that ilk.

I´m still wondering why they labeled this portuguese duo as neo prog. Factory Of Dreams leans much more towards the prog metal/gothic path than anything else. it´s quite nice music for sure, but don´t expect anything even close to neo prog because you won´t find it on Poles. I liked the voice of Jessica Lehte, she is surely a trained singer with good vocal technique and a nice timbre, even if her style is quite common place nowadays.

Hugo Flores is also a very good musician and knows how to write some interesting tunes. Most songs are slow or middle paced affairs, with lots of multi-tracked, full of effects vocal parts, symphonic synths, metallic edge guitars and some eletronic drums. The results are good, but not very outstanding. In fact they do very little more than dozens of other bands are doing, except maybe for some extra care for the atmospheric parts. Pretty cover, too.

I recommend this CD to the fans of Xandria, Evanescence, Within Temptation and the like. Poles is promising, the duo have the potential and maybe they can bring something more original in future works. For this one, 3 stars. Good, bot nothing more than that.

Factory of Dreams is the latest brainchild of Portuguese multi-instrumentalist Hugo Flores.

Fans of Project Creation will find many similar elements on this release; but this time around Flores has teamed up with a female vocalist who gets to handle all voice and vocal duties; and the album is much more of a pure-bred prog metal exploration.

Dramatic and melo-dramatic compositions is the name of the game here; massive synth layers with symphonic leanings; drawn out massive chords and mostly slower riff patterns fleshing out the sound; loops and electronic rhythms used extensively and operatic vocals placed on top.

Well produced and well performed; but too much focus on big contrasts and too few finer details ultimately makes me regard this as an album that should appeal to fans of power metal as well as followers of a project like Ayreon; with a younger audience as the suspected primary target crowd.