POLES

Factory of Dreams is the latest brainchild of Portuguese multi-instrumentalist Hugo Flores.

Fans of Project Creation will find many similar elements on this release; but this time around Flores has teamed up with a female vocalist who gets to handle all voice and vocal duties; and the album is much more of a pure-bred prog metal exploration.

Dramatic and melo-dramatic compositions is the name of the game here; massive synth layers with symphonic leanings; drawn out massive chords and mostly slower riff patterns fleshing out the sound; loops and electronic rhythms used extensively and operatic vocals placed on top.

Well produced and well performed; but too much focus on big contrasts and too few finer details ultimately makes me regard this as an album that should appeal to fans of power metal as well as followers of a project like Ayreon; with a younger audience as the suspected primary target crowd.

I´m still wondering why they labeled this portuguese duo as neo prog. Factory Of Dreams leans much more towards the prog metal/gothic path than anything else. it´s quite nice music for sure, but don´t expect anything even close to neo prog because you won´t find it on Poles. I liked the voice of Jessica Lehte, she is surely a trained singer with good vocal technique and a nice timbre, even if her style is quite common place nowadays.

Hugo Flores is also a very good musician and knows how to write some interesting tunes. Most songs are slow or middle paced affairs, with lots of multi-tracked, full of effects vocal parts, symphonic synths, metallic edge guitars and some eletronic drums. The results are good, but not very outstanding. In fact they do very little more than dozens of other bands are doing, except maybe for some extra care for the atmospheric parts. Pretty cover, too.

I recommend this CD to the fans of Xandria, Evanescence, Within Temptation and the like. Poles is promising, the duo have the potential and maybe they can bring something more original in future works. For this one, 3 stars. Good, bot nothing more than that.

Factory of Dreams should find a wide audience as it slots neatly into the genre originally created by The Gathering, and since enriched by luminaries such as Within Temptation, Nightwish, Edenbridge, Lacuna Coil, After Forever, and Epica - et al. It is goth metal, though the 'metal' label is used lightly, fronted by the rich soprano of Sweden's Jessica Lehto. But unlike its genre-mates, Factory Of Dreams isn't a band - it's a 2-person project, an Internet collaboration, with vocals and many arrangements provided by Jessica, while multi- instrumentalist Hugo Flores provides the rest.

Flores remains close to his sci-fi story roots with this one. If you're a fan of the progressive goth format of a semi-operatic soprano contrasting dark atmospherics and power-chord driven bass-heavy hard-rock, Factory Of Dreams is not far apart from others in the genre - but it's a pleasing listen, and has a lot going for it.

Factory Of Dreams is the new project of Hugo Flores, guitarist of Project Creation. Eleven tracks with a fusion of Progressive / Symphonic Rock, electronic (trip-rock and ambient) and elements of the Gothic universe. Hugo Flores is joined by Swedish vocalist Jessica Letho and bassist Chris Brown (with a brief participation). I have mixed feelings about this project. The music of Factory Of Dreams does not go very far from what certain names of the Symphonic / Gothic Metal scene with feminine voice like The Gathering, Leaves Eyes, Sirenia, Theater Of Tragedy or Within Temptation make, although with a more "calm" and ambiental approach to the genre (the name of the project may give some clues). It's well done, it has good ideas, the voice is amazing but ... there is that constant feeling of déjà-vu. And yet I can not help but listen to it. If you are in the right mood, "Poles" can be a pleasant company. It is, however, far from being an essential record.