DEAD OR DREAMING

Into Eternity is a Progressive Melodic Power Death Metal band from Canada. Looking at that "definition" must be really confusing, eh? In other words, Into Eternity is a mix of a lot of Metal genres, Progressive Metal, Power Metal, Death Metal, but most overlooked in this band is the "Melodic side" of things. Into Eternity is an extremely Melodic band with some of the best Vocal harmonies and melodies I've heard in Metal. This album is an excellent example of that. Here is a breakdown of the album:

This is a METAL album, which means it will be HEAVY. Plus, this isn't just Heavy Metal, this band has DEATH GROWLS alternating with Clean, Power Metal vocals along with some Progressive Metal musical elements in it. The singer (now former) of Into Eternity varies from low pitched singing to high-screeching falsettos. The growling of the two other vocalists blow us away with the alternation of between clean and brutal vocals, much like Opeth, but used differently. This band would sometimes switch between brutal and clean vocals almost every other phrase, highly resembling an Ayreon project, but only with three vocalists.

Overall, I'd recommend this album to any open-minded fan of Progressive Metal or a Prog Rock fan who wants to hear something REALLY BRUTAL.

This album shows the things to come for Into Eternity on their next album, a good album nevertheless.

A solid 3.5 stars

Into Eternity plays a mix of power and death metal. The vocals go back and forth between growls and clean sung vocals that utilize frequent harmonization. A death metal band in it's purest form, the group has a myopic focus on death; the lyrics and even the band's name and album titles brazenly display their morbid fixation, but sometimes it's hard to notice among the sheer melodicism of the material. It never feels like death metal. The riffs and solos constantly favor melody, and even the growled parts aren't surrounded with a dark aura.

But what's even more enigmatic than that is that somehow it never feels like anything special. It all seems very forced and it never feels compelling. The musicians are all skilled, yet it is possible that they are relying too heavily on their carnal abilities to do the work for them. Certainly at face value this is some quality music, but after you've been intrigued enough sit through the record, you feel nothing. I find it hard to believe that this is just another way the band brings out their death fetish.

This is an interesting formula (which the group will improve slightly on with their next record) which may be worth hearing, but don't be surprised if it leaves you cold.

Big improvement, yet nothing out of the ordinary.

There's a big leap between Into Eternity's debut album and Dead or Dreaming yet still following the same formula of death metal with progressive metal. We can hear that there are some little improvements that make their music sound a lot better like major musical arrangements and especially additional vocals though Tim Roth still has main vocal duties. Into Eternity still have a long way to go as I said before in the review of their debut, and yet still some of the rhythms and melodies of the album feel a bit similar to those of their debut albums, especially the instrumental parts, which may feel improved at times, but still feel similar. Having said that some songs like Elysium Dream and Unholy (Fields of the Dead) manage to have some original and different melodies (to make a stand out for the album) in which you can determine which song is which instead of thinking that you're listening to the same song again. Tim Roth has improved a lot on vocals and Daniel Nargang provides incredible vocals, but Tim's "death grunts" or "screech" gets a bit annoying and makes the music no good to listen. There are still some pretty decent and good moments in songs like Unholy (Fields of the Dead), Elysium Dream which is the most outstanding song of the album, Imagination Overdose & the album title track and make the album worth a while. The album isn't that good but still finds a way to greatly execute its music. In overall the album is much better than the first one but nothing far from great, a slight improvement of the previous but nothing really special or out of the ordinary to listen here, yet it is still worth listening to.

It's a 3.5

Dead or Dreaming is the second full-length studio album by Canadian metal act Into Eternity. This was my first encounter with the band which is good because as I retrospectively reviewed their debut I found one of the most awful releases I have yet encountered here on Prog Archives. The debut is a tame, emotionless, badly produced, badly written and generic metalcore/ soft melodic death metal album IMO and I gave it a deserved 1 star rating. The only thing I partially enjoyed on that album was the musicianship. Things have fortunately changed for the better here on Dead or Dreaming.

The music is melodic death metal/ metalcore with both clean singing and a few growling vocal parts. The song structures are generally very simple vers/ chorus build but there are a few surprises along the way. The clean vocal parts dominate the music and they are very memorable. The music is very melodic and keyboards mean that the music gets a kind of pop metal touch.

The musicianship is really good. Some sharp riffing and tight interplay means that there are a couple of sections on an otherwise trivial affair that makes me bang my head.

The production is allright but it doesn´t stand out as something special. The songs have a tendency to become background noise and I think a more interesting production might have done the trick ( well not all the trick. But at least it would have helped).

Dead or Dreaming is a very polished metal album that at times sounds almost radio friendly. I have nothing against accessibility but this album fails to produce any really good songs. There´s just something missing. Emotion maybe? As such I could give this album a 3 star rating because it´s rather average but on the other hand something just isn´t right here and I don´t enjoy the album one bit ( well one bit more than the debut which is an improvement) and I will therefore only rate it with 2 stars. Good tight musicianship and seemingly memorable songs don´t always make an album great when emotion is missing.

'Dead Or Dreaming' - Into Eternity (3/10)

Sometimes called the 'Dream Theater of Canada' by fans, Into Eternity are a clearly skilled metal group originating from the middle of the prairies. While not a typical place for a metal band to start up, they have since gained a fanbase that has flowed a bit into the mainstream of metal listeners. Despite certainly being a talented bunch however, Into Eternity seems to have a bit of a problem with making a good album from start to finish. While each song they write has some sort of interesting moment of technicality or dynamic to it, the music starts to lose it's effect when the same tricks are pulled out for every song, every time. Such is the case with the band's second album 'Dead Or Dreaming.' While being an exciting and energetic listen at first, it doesn't take long to realize that each song follows very similar patterns, melodies and riffs. Especially for a progressive act, that should send up red flags almost immediately.

Each track generally opens up with a heavy, downtuned riff before erupting into a chorus or some sort of songwriting archetype. While having song structure to progressive metal can often be a refreshing change from often overzealous epics and pretentiousness, things get pretty boring. After the fifth track 'Elysium Dream,' (the first half of the album has some pretty great moments) there is almost nothing new offered, except the same sort of song that's already been heard, with different sets of forgettable, cookie cutter 'despair' lyrics.

To the band's credit, they are very tight in terms of their performance, and had these songs been performed by a less capable ensemble, there would be nothing to look into 'Dead Or Dreaming' for. However, while it's evident that these metallers can play alot of other musicians into oblivion, the songwriting and overall feel of the album leaves far too much to be desired. While the first two listens or so can be very enjoyable, once the familiarity sinks in, there is very little to enjoy here.

INTO ETERNITY dates all the way back to 1997 in Regina, Saskatchewan in Canada's central plains region by founding members Tim Roth (vocals, guitar), Scott Krall (bass) and Jim Austin (drums) and together these guys crafted a sound that mixed progressive metal with melodic death metal and a touch of power metal. After the arrival of Chris McDougall on keyboards the band created their first self-titled debut that was released independently in 1999 and then re-released the following year on the DVS label. The album showed promise but displayed an immature band trying to get it right.

The following DEAD OR DREAMING could be thought of as the band's first official release which came out in 2001, also released twice first by DVS and then by Century Media Records. This album has ten tracks and squeaks past the 44 minute mark with lyrics written by Tim Roth and musical scores crafted by the entire band. In addition to the three original members and McDougall on keyboards, INTO ETERNITY added a second guitarist with Daniel Nargang with all members contributing to backing vocals including some extra help from Amy Ozog on 'Elysium Dream", "Selling God" and "Cyber Messiah.'

Unfortunately INTO ETERNITY delivers a style of progressive metal that i don't find very appealing. In many ways this band is a one-trick pony despite showcasing a wide variety of metal styles. While in its wake the band conjures up death metal growls, thrash metal riffs, power metal melodies and progressive metal complexities, the composiitons seem to all follow the same projectile and chord progressions with a clean vocal style that alternates with some death metal growls. The overall production has one of those polished sounds that takes the grit off of the metal distortion and allows the squeaky clean vocals to shine through.

There's not much i can say about this one. I find the vocals utterly irritating and cookie cutter rhythms and compositional styles are too monotonous for my tastes. The acoustic parts with clean vocals that pump up the synthesizers are just sappy and insincere and even the riffs are boring. The death metal growls are ridiculously strewn about with no rhyme or reason. This silly canned formula just makes me think of those high quality production videos with pretty boys letting their hair blow around with fans as they try to take the focus off the music. It's hard to find anything good to say about this really because it pushes all my *hate it* buttons and i'm quite fond of cheese and pop hooks. Yawn.