DANDELION

Time's Forgotten had everyone talking when they released their first album, A fresh breath on the overly satured Prog Metal market. Of course, after a such magnificent effort, everyone was with very high expectations about their second album. The question is: Does "Dandelion" lives on the hype? The answer is easy, a clear and big "YES" (caps intended).

Dandelion presents an stronger Time's Forgotten, with heavier guitar work, and more intricate compositions and musicianship, but still keeping the -now traditional- Time's Forgotten sound. I've always said that, when you can pick a band over the others just by indentifying their trademark sound, it's a sign that they are doing things good.

The musical landscape that Dandelion presents us is very wide; going from the typical prog-metal-technical riffs, to some mellow rock-related passages, finding on the way some strokes of electronic music, classic mellotron moments, irish-esque flute passages, and some mystic chants and melodies that carry us to a very picturesque portrait. But don't let that variety of sounds fool you, all the music spins around a centric idea, making the album feel like a whole, and not like a bunch of song thrown there nosenseless .

Longui (main vocalist) surpass himself by a very wide margin (in comparison to the first release). On of my first complains about "A relative moment of peace" was his performance. I was by no means bad, BUT, neither was at the quality of the whole album. On "Dandelion" he sounds a lot lot better his highs are pretty impressive, and the soft, mellower parts works very good for him too, that helped by the fact that the quality recording if very good, same with the vocal melodies.

Speaking of vocal melodies, Time's Forgotten really knows when and how to used them right. Most of the time, there are several layer of voice on the mix, adding a great touch to the music, and in more specific cases, there are very memorable chorus (keeping the catchy Time's trademark) present on the whole album. "Everything's not lost" and "Backhome" comes to mind. Also, we can't left unmentioned "Welcome you my night" (Best song on the album, in my opinion), with its epic chants at the beginning-end.

Fortunately, the rifting is also catchy, yet at the same time very powerful and intricate. I can even venture to say that the guitar work is the best part of the whole picture. It's obvious that the band put a lot of effort on getting this right, and they succeeded very well. From the electro-disco feeling present on "Indifferent", to the heavy-crunchy riff (Paired with a nice vocal work) at the middle of "The Tale of Moon and Sun", every song had their single special something that can make stand among the others

My only significant complaint is that, the flute / Celtic passages could have been a lot more linked to the song itself. Sometimes, although they sound cool, these irish-esque parts feels very very separate from the song,

Overall, this is a very recommended album for both those who enjoy some Progressive Metal, and for those who also enjoy some good, softer prog rock. Summarizing even more, this album should be accessible for everyone that enjoys good music.

4.4 / 5