5TH SEASON

It's been quite a while since I've been listening to progressive metal ever since I've gotten tired of listening to much of it and since I've been exploring new things, so I decided to go back and star to dig up progressive metal bands I haven't heard and while searching I found Dreamscape's 5th Season, an album that has a similar sound to Dream Theater and Symphony X. Though I must admit I like this one more than Dream Theater and Symphony X.

5th Season is the last album to feature Roland Stoll on vocals, Benno Schmidtler on bass, and Jan Vacik on the keys and is the first to feature drummer Michael Shwager. The album doesn't quite bring anything new to the whole progressive metal genre but it has some decent melodies that make the album worth listening to. It is composed of 9 songs with average length all running between the 4 to 7 minutes long and a 14 minute long epic.

I could say that 5th Season starts getting good after the first two songs. These songs are a bit boring specially Borderline which totally reminds me of the song Undecided from James Labrie's Elements of Persuasion. Stand out tracks like 5th Season itself, Déjà Vu, Somebody and Point Zero make this album really stand out from the rest of my other progressive metal albums. On the other hand, the best songs of the album would have to be Phenomenon and Different. These two have similar riffs to DT's Train of Thought, though they have a more melodic approach. The sound is so deep and powerful especially Phenomenon in the lines "Fall into something so beautiful, too unreal, too far away to believe". As for Farewell, it is a closing ballad (I think it should e called that) and just by reading the name you can tell what it sounds like and what it is about. It's not that bad though.

In overall 5th Season is indeed a decent progressive metal album with a similar sound to bands mentioned above. Dreamscape is a great progressive metal band with a very melodic approach. If you're a fan of Dream Theater, Symphony X, even Andromeda or James Labrie's solo work you're definitely are going to like this one.

Great Prog Metal! 4.3 For me!

4,5 rounded to 5

One of the most polished and solid prog metal albums I ever heared in last years. 5th season is the last album from 2007 of this prog metal act from Germany. Better then the predecesor, with a plus on compositions, they take care more of subtle arrangements, the musicianship is outstanding, and the pieces flow from one to another in a spectacular way. Well is true again we have traces of Dream Theater, but this is not a proble here this album is better then anything Dream Theater release after Scenes from amemory. The voice of Roland Stoll is excellent on this album, quite better then on previous work, from high range to mellower aproach, this guy is a shining star among vocalists these days. The interplays between guirat and keys is again brilliant, leaving the listner with breath taken. From odd time signatures to complex arrangemnts make from this Dreamscape last effort a truly amazing work in prog metal. Germany always was and is a pile in this sugenre, giving some outstanding bands, just to name a few Vanden Plas, Avalon, etc. So 5th season desearve from me a full 5 stars, recommended among the best prog metal albums these days. Fav pieces: the opening track Fed Up With, the title track 5th Season - a super example how must sound prog metal today, well written and well composed and above all not boring one second, Somebody and Diffrent. Higly recommended for all prog metal listners and a masterpiece of this subgenre.

Sadly 5th season might have to be labeled Dreamscape's unsurpassable legacy, with 3 major players having left the band right after it's release party performance. I wouldn't call it Dreamscape's swan song because the remaining gitarrist and drummer managed to stage a well acclaimed tour in 2008 using session musicians among them Mischa Mang of Ivanhoe fame. Still this record is something special.

The two opening songs 'Fed Up With' and 'Borderline' are well composed and performed - I am sure many a prog metal band would be happy to have written them - preparing a staging ground for the title track, a 14 1/2 minute monster of genius and creative bliss that leaves the listener breathless and reaching for the repeat key at an instant. 'Deja Vu' serves as a little filler before 'Phenomenon' is unleashed at the audience, rich in intensity, a super thick canvas of sound wrapping itself around Roland Stoll's voice. What '5th Season' requires the 4th of an hour to unload, 'Phenomenon' keeps true to it's name and does it in an almost radio compatible timespan. This song will probably never ever leave my head, there were days when I went to sleep humming it and woke the next morning to continue humming it. With 'Different' and 'Point Zero' Dreamscape can once again demonstrate their ability to create contemporary progressive metal songs that just cannot raise the suspicion of being a waste of time, that spite their length because the minutes pass in a blur while the listener displays an insane grin on it's face.

'Farewell' finalizes the tremendous cut in the band's biography, but as with every farewell this is also a new beginning and surely only time will be a matter for Dreamscapes next output, if just it will be a creative behemont like this record.

Sometimes a band keeps releasing albums, staying within the same style but refining it with each album, until it all suddenly clicks. Dreamscape's fourth album is such. They started doing 7 minute songs on their third album, but it seemed sometimes plodding and directionless. The fourth is structured similarly - first, two shorter, rockier songs, an epic, 7-minute numbers, a ballad. But every track is superior to its counterpart.

Dreamscape is a so-called Dreamtheater clone that actually sounds like Dreamtheater (and not just a metal band with long songs, keyboards and melodic vocals that are often lumped into this category), and is as good as DT - on this album. The long songs are a study in contrasts, moving from lush keyboard passages to crushing riffs and guitar shredding, all the while retaining the accessibility. They are also capable, as Dreamtheater, of power ballads and uplifting melodic metal numbers. But wisely stay from overdoing stuff.

Maybe not the most original band out there, but a must for mainstream prog metal fans.