Artist: Dreamshade
Title: What Silence Hides
Type: Album
Label: Spinefarm

Melodic Death Metal isn’t a tough formula to get right; catchy melodies, high octane performance and big production, simple really. Yet so many bands get it horribly wrong by simply re-inventing the same song over and over again. Dreamshade are one of those bands that veer terribly close to doing this, but never managed to write themselves off.

It is blatantly obvious from the opening bars of the ‘What Silence Hides’ that this band can write a brilliant song with lots of great riffs, groovy rhythms and cinematic synths. Progressing through songs like ‘As Serenity Falls’ and ‘Revive In Me’ it is also obvious that the band can also spin a sound out for all it is worth. Four songs in and ‘Wide Awake’ is the first song with hit potential with its huge scream-a-long chorus and relentless pace. ‘Eternal’ shakes the formula up as well with the keyboards taking up more of the mix and the first overt if sparing use of clean vocals. Yet ‘Miles Away’ follows suit with pretty much the same formula from start to finish albeit with an emphasis on a heavier sound. ‘Only Memories Remain’ then changes the pace (slightly) for a track that doesn’t so much chug along as stutter. ‘DeGeneration’ throws a curveball with its slower chugging intro that evolves into another possible hit for the band. Yet the band follow it with ‘Erased By Time’ which again feels like a more melodic version of the previous offering. The closing track ‘Open Wounds’ claws things back at the last minute with what is a classic sounding Melo-Death track that will tick a lot of fans boxes.

There is a lot about this band that is great. The performances throughout the album and the song-writing itself are both excellent. The production is pretty much faultless too. However the band constantly feel like they want to open up and mix things up a bit before bailing out and returning to a tried and tested formula.

http://www.dreamshade.de