VERY

A DISAPPOINTING ALBUM!

I purchased this album after listening to the track on this site "When Shadows are gone" which I consider enjoyable. I had great expectations but soon all these expectations turned to deception. The album is not bad at all; I enjoyed it a lot the first time I listened to it but the problem was that their music did not grow on me.

Dreamscape is not such terrible band; in fact vocals are excellent, drumming is very complex and powerful, and keyboard lines are very eloquent. However, their evident immaturity, their poor production, and the lack of innovation made me lose interest in their music every time I play it. Dreamscape music is predictable and sometimes repetitive and boring. The few interesting isolated instrumental parts are obscured by the lack of musical cohesiveness and their bothering hard riffs. There is incongruent contrast between the soft keyboard lines and their noisy rhythm guitars that does not permit to enjoy the music itself.

I love the kind of albums that have homogeneity, a total musical concept that makes it really worthwhile. A homogeny album is good as a whole, not just that some of their good tracks. If you listen to the first three tracks of the album, you don't need to listen more because this album does not have anything more, so there is a serious lack of homogeneity.

Maybe with a better production, more instrumental passages with a more powerful presence of keyboard lines, and a higher number of virtuous guitar solos, this would have been a good album.

Personally I don't recommend this album to no one.

Good Progressions!!!

I first knew this band when i visited the Rising Sun Record over the Internet and i really interest in this band.First,i am sorry for bad English.Anyway,i have got the CD borrowed from my best friend who had the Metal Store here in Bali (Indonesia ),at first listen,this album blew me away,The music is completely progressive metal (complex and powerful ) with many abrupt changes in style and tempo but the vocal quality is very excellent and powerful.The track When Shadows Are Gone,Thorn In My Mind and Alone - Panterei Part I is really nice combination between complex drums,excellent vocal and atmosphere keyboard and tight bass.Judging by these songs, this is a great album,not boring and technical album.

Overall, this album is recommended to all the progressive metal fans who Loves DT,Andromeda and other technical Progressive Metal band.

German prog metal band Dreamscape might be one of my fav prog metal bands ever, even the originality lacks most of the time, the musicicnship is top notch on every album. I've reviewed so far 3 of their albums, 5th season was the peak of their career for sure, a truly outstanding release in this genre. Second offer from their catalogue is Very from 1999, featuring excellent vocalist Hubi Meisel (from maeve of Connacht or Book of Reflections). The pieces are not lenghty, the longest has around 7 min, but there are so many memorable parts here, that any prog metal fan can enjoy. As always the instrumental passages are brilliant, plus the voice of Meisel going hand in hand with the music. Energic parts, duels between guitars and keyboards and an awesome drumer. Maybe in some parts the musical arrangements sounding same, with clear influences from Dream Theater, but if you dig deeper, this is a truly reat album. All pieces are great, not particulary weak moments, despite the originality , in rest another worthy release from this unnoticed prog metal band. 4 stars for sure. After this one they become even better, with a new vocalist Roland Stoll. 3.5 stars rounded to 4.

My first experience with Dreamscape came through the 'Revoiced' compilation, in which they had re-recorded the best songs of their first two releases with then-current vocalist Roland Stoll. While I found their debut, 'Trance-Like State' to be a huge disappointment, 'Very' steps up musically, with all-round better songwriting, and with better production that gives everything a bit more punch than before. However, the album as a whole still feels lacking.

For one thing, similar to before, I find the re-recorded versions with Roland Stoll to be the more definitive versions of these tracks. While 'Very' vocalist Huby Meisel has a nice, clear and somewhat majestic voice, it still doesn't feel powerful enough to match the music.

Much like every progressive metal band, the comparisons to Dream Theater will be everywhere, but one thing I really dig about Dreamscape is how much more melodic their music is. Even the heavy riffs have a sense of elegance about them. Songs like 'Thorn in My Mind', 'When Shadows Are Gone', 'Winter Dreams' and the 'Panterei' trilogy are all excellent tracks that combine crunchy, heavy guitars with beautiful keyboard melodies.

But, of course, these songs all appear on 'Revoiced', which means that while 'Very' is a good album, and definitely an improvement upon the band's debut, it still feels like it can be discarded now, and left merely for the collectors.