REMEDY LANE

I really want to love this album, because I really love Daniel Gildenlöw's vocals and progressive metal, and they're from Sweden like me. But a lot of the songs doesn't work for me.

In Ending Theme the spooken part doesn't fit at all. Fandango just lacks a good structure and melody. In A Trace of Blood the heavier lyrics allmost sound parodic and the heavier parts and softer parts don't go well together. The Rope Ends has the same problems as Fandango.

Fortunaly there are some really good songs here aswell. Undertow has a good melody and I like how the vocals grow darker and more powerfull throughout the song. Gildenlöw truly shows his voice in this one. Chain Sling is a very good song, the refrain is upplifting and Gildenlöw's voice is perfect in this one to. Dryad of the woods is a very nice instrumental piece and the combination of the the guitarr and the piano works very good. And finaly Second Love is a beautiful love song with a good melody.

But in the end I think this is one of the most overestimated albums of progressive metal alongside Operation: Mindcrime. I do think that the instrumental perfomences are great throughout the album and Daniel Gildenlöw's vocals are perfect and very emotional in allmost every song, it's just that the lyrics often don't fit with the music.

Best track: Chain Sling

The album gets 3 out of 5 stars.