PYRE OF DREAMS

Persephone's Dream are a band that I discovered a few years back when I found their album Opposition in a used CD store. I was intrigued to find a heavy metal band with a female lead singer, which seemed quite unique to me; at least at that time. They returned 6 years later with a new vocalist to release the album Pyre of Dreams. The previous reviewer made a nice observation in recognizing their similarity to their label mates Project Creation. The music consists of some beautiful female vocals, and strong guitar, keyboards, and drums. The second track Synesthesia is probably my favorite from the album and the 11th track Aphrodite is probably my second favorite. The 4th track Cryptoendolith is an excellent percussion based instrumental that is way too short at 1:34.

Tracks 5 through 9 are parts I through V of the 23 minute long epic titled Temple In Time. I think that musically and vocally it is pretty good. Guest vocalist D.C. Cooper of Royal Hunt and Amaran's Plight fame makes an appearance. It appears to tell the story of King Arthur, and the slaying of a dragon. Although I enjoy these types of stories within music, I suspect that others might find them to be too cheesy for their tastes. Interestingly, tracks III and IV included in the body of the album are dubbed the King Arthur mixes. These two songs are repeated as bonus songs at the end but these are dubbed the Lady in the Lake mixes. I'm not quite sure what the differences are, so it sounds like reason for further investigation.

If you like your hard rock/heavy metal with creative percussion, synthesizers and female vocals than this band is for you. I find this album to be a good listen, but not essential, and therefore I give it 3 stars.