Austrian futuristic metal band Golden Dawn returns after a long silence with this follow-up (actually the 4th album! but the second one that gets fully recorded and released after many problems with labels and stuff) to the acclaimed debut "The Art of Dreaming". One wouldn't have expected a sudden regression into raw black metal, but it is a bit of a surprise how much heavy metal influences and vocal variety+experimentation pervade this CD.

The opening track "Silent Inferno" sounds rather much like old Golden Dawn with its stirring fast keyboards and black metal rasp with some blazing guitarlines, but already on the 2nd track, the instrumental "Doomsday Celebration" we are delving deep into the 'renaissance metal' of Stratovarius or Symphony X! The best tracks of the album, "Alive and Immortal" and "Enthralled by Unknown Dimensions" manage to combine the various futuristic and classicist elements to a sort of journey; the best way to listen to the album is not as individual songs or even as a coherent whole but as a background landscapes where nice tunes, impressive breaks and epic vocal choirs burst through the surface of the indecipherable abyss of 'musical progression'.

If you get the impression that this is an album not for everyone, it is the right impression. After several listens I am yet unsure if this will remain a classic like "The Art of Dreaming" or will it be buried under a pile of open-minded half-metal bullshit. At least I do feel that most of the fans of the debut album will like some of the songs and there is a massive amount of inspiration here; a drawback might be that now Golden Dawn is a full band instead of just one guy with session musicians, so everyone is bringing their own influences into a melting pot which was already a bit confused.

© 2003 black hate