DREAMTALE – Difference

Writing a review about Difference by the Finnish Power Metal band DREAMTALE is a little strange for me, as the band underwent some heavy changes: Their vocalist Jarkko Ahola and and Esa Orjatsalo, the second guitar player, left just a short time after the album was recorded. Well, this wouldn’t be too much of a problem if the album sucked, but unfortunately, this is not the case, as it’s one of the freshest Power Metal albums I have listened to after years of boring retro stuff. Difference features excellent songwriting and a great production by Timo Tolkki. The vocals of Jarkko Ahola are quite different from the usual high-pitched screams and I’m pretty sure he would have become a popular metal vocalist if he kept his position within the band. With their third album, Difference, the band wanted to increase their popularity by raising the overall quality of their music and improving both production and songwriting. Even though this experiment was successful, it’s impossible for me to predict how the situation will be on the next album. The music is, in a way, comparable to the early works of Stratovarius with Timo Tolkki on vocals. It’s a little more to the point, a bit rougher and very catchy. Choirs pump up the juice and a positive kind of aggression which shines through the naïve, but touching vocal lines surely grabs the listeners attention. Especially the more epic tracks in the middle of the album are very different from what we know as Finnish Power metal and sound very promising. Anyway, either Difference will remain the first and the last impressive document of a young and uprising metal band which was forced down by its own personal problems or, well, who knows: May we will get another great disc. I just don’t know, so I’ll keep it short this time and stick to this short side-notice introducing a beautiful piece of music in front of a somehow disturbing internal situation of a band which might either become famous or remain unnoticed.