Die-hard metalheads will undoubtedly state, in unison, that
\nballads are poison. For sure, they sent me screaming from the radio
\nback in 1984, when I was just getting my first tastes of forbidden
\nfruits like Van Halen.<\/p>\n
Yet numerous metal bands out there will tell you that you can do
\na song without having all gears burning out and still maintain your
\nheaviness. This seems to be the premise for the collection
\nMetal Dreams, Vol. 2<\/i>, which has been in my collection for
\nsome time now, but I’m only now getting to.<\/p>\n
Granted, the only time any of the 16 featured bands dip into
\ntrue “ballad” territory is when Mr. Big plays their hit “To Be With
\nYou” — and that should relieve the minds of many hard-core metal
\nfans. Yet this collection does turn down the intensity and presents
\na somewhat interesting look at a much-maligned genre of music. The
\nonly thing this collection doesn’t do is inspire you to purchase
\nother CDs from these groups — and, in that regard, the compilation
\ndoes fail.<\/p>\n
Besides Mr. Big, those who only know a little about metal will
\nbe comforted by the presence of Skid Row and their hit “18 And
\nLife.” Many of the other groups might be new names, but there
\nreally isn’t a bad track among them.<\/p>\n
Sure, everyone who listens to this disc will find their
\nfavorites – and maybe even a track or two they can live without.
\nAfter spending some time listening to this one, I found myself
\ngoing back to Nightwish’s “Sleeping Sun,” Iced Earth’s “I Died For
\nYou” and Sinner’s “Destiny”. Bonfire also impressed me with
\n“Goodnight Amanda.” Meanwhile, I personally would have left off
\n“Nightfall” from Blind Guardian — not a bad track, mind you, but
\njust not my particular favorite style.<\/p>\n
Yet I can’t say that
\nMetal Dreams, Vol. 2<\/i> sends me into a frenzy of purchasing
\nmore CDs — though, with a few of these artists lingering in my
\n“should have reviewed by now” pile, I am a little more likely to
\ndust them off and give them some attention. So, while I won’t be
\nbuying anything from Love Like Blood or Macbeth, I may be soon
\ncranking out older discs from To Die For and Sinner. (The jury is
\nstill out, though, on Iced Earth — they may take a Jackson or two
\nfrom my wallet.)<\/p>\n
Maybe the purpose of this collection was to promote numerous
\nlesser-known metal acts and gain attention to them — in this
\nregard, mission accomplished. Maybe the purpose was to show
\nskeptics that metal doesn’t have to be hundreds of beats a minute
\nto be heavy, and that a lighter touch on the tempo can still be as
\nenjoyable. Mission also accomplished.<\/p>\n
I don’t know if
\nMetal Dreams, Vol. 2<\/i> is presently in print, but it does
\nserve as a good primer to numerous bands, and is a reminder that,
\nyes, even in the metal world, there exists some version that
\neveryone can enjoy.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":26931,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"tags":[],"artist":[5827],"rating":[5617],"class_list":["post-38237","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-various-artists","rating-rating-b-plus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/38237\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/26931"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38237"},{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=38237"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=38237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}