Customer Reviews

Dust to Dust

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Where do I begin? You've probably already read that this album is just over 70 minutes long. I have no idea how this album keeps my attention so well for the entire 70 minutes, but it does. Every song is so different! And yet... so good! No other album except Hatebreeder (which is half as long) can have not even 30 weak seconds and still be this good. I'd call this `the Mirror of Madness of power metal,' meaning that is about as perfect as a semi-unknown band can do. Heavenly's put them right up there with the big names in the genre with this album. And also, the production has gotten a TON better since Sign of the Winner (which I've also reviewed).

Speed - this album is on my list here on amazon for the title track, and I've been over to 2 friend's houses who listened to the sample of the 2nd song there. They know this kind of music pretty well, and just shook their head in disbelief at how fast that is. One of them said something like "How did their drummer do this for 70 minutes?!" The other is used to blastbeats in black metal and has heard speed taken beyond what can normally be done. Back to this album, there are about 2 ballads and I think 2 short instrumental songs (not including the intro). Most of the songs are about 6 minutes, with Miracle being the longest at 9:08. Miracle is quite an amazing song, while I'm at it. So is the title track. Those are the only 2 I've listened really closely to.

I think the story of the album is something like a guy dying and coming back to life (as a demon, maybe). This album covers that 2nd life part. And I think (again, I'm not sure - this is just how I interpreted it from when I looked in the lyric booklet) in the title track, he dies again (sorry if I spoiled the ending, but get a grip - this isn't a movie or anything).

So let's see... I love the 2nd track, think the 3rd is even better, like the 4th, love the 5th, love the 6th, ... ... go do something else while 7 and 8 are playing (I'm not trying to say that they make me lost interest - for instance, when nature calls, you gotta go!), but 9 is incredible and gives me chills. 10 is great, 11 and 12 are like 7 and 8, and the title track is half-piano ballad.

This just might be the fastest power metal album out there behind Valley of the Damned and Sonic Firestorm. Skylark isn't even this fast anymore (check out their new album, "Wings"). The singer has gotten much more stable-sounding and doesn't sound like Timo Kotipelto anymore. He now has his own voice and doesn't even sound like Gamma Ray's singer anymore. Keyboards compliment the music perfectly, but don't stand out as their own instrument, as they do with Norther or Sonata Arctica. They're more in the background now, as they were on Stratovarius's Infinite album (for one). If you haven't figured it out yet, I strongly believe this is by far Heavenly's most powerful album to date.

One of the notes I made a while ago for this album says, "Every song could be a single! They're even more different from each other than on Coming From the Sky and Sign of the Winner!"

I hope I helped you in deciding whether to or not purchase this (wonderful) album. If I helped, please say so! I have a lot of other reviews (and now, I have my own list here on amazon!), so read them when you get a chance. Type in "Tunnelvision" and you should get to the list.

This is the latest release by the French Epic Power Metal band Heavenly. Now if you're familiar with Heavenly you know that their music is.... well Heavenly. Their previous album, Sign of The Winner, was a melodic masterpiece and one of the most melodious efforts I have ever heard.

Well not to worry, Dust to Dust is every bit as melodic and every bit a masterpiece. At slightly over seventy minutes long it's also a great value. There is one thing that I found a bit odd though. Epic Power Metal albums are usually concept albums (albums that tell a story) and they tend to use a fantasy genre for their subject matter. You know fighting off Dragons, Trolls and Black Knights, but this slice of melodious heaven chose an unlikely subject matter - Vampires. I'll bet Ann Rice would appreciate that. Now I'm not complaining. I actually found the subject matter to be a nice change of pace but I must admit to a little confusion.

One of the things I've always liked about Power Metal is the music, for me at least, seemed so noble and uplifting, You know fighting the Orcs and all, in contrast with Black Metal, Doom Metal etc, which tended to have macabre and morose subjects, like vampires and ghouls. With Dust to Dust we still have the same uplifting , really uplifting music with LIVING DEAD CREATURES OF THE NIGHT. I like it but it does seem somewhat strange

The lead singer Ben Sotto is very capable. He has a rather high pitched but pleasant vox not unlike Freedom Call's Chris Bay and Kamelot's Roy Kahn. The musicianship is superlative. These guys know their instruments and are masters. The song writing and arrangements have continuously matured from their first album, Coming From the Sky. The overall effort on Dust to Dust is superb and I suspect it is one of the ten best Power Metal albums I have heard to date.

Okay, this would have to be the greatest album I've ever heard. It's amazing! 70+ minutes of intense power metal! HEAVENLY hail from southern France and have 3 albums to their name, Comming From The Sky, Sign Of The Winner, and DUST TO DUST (their latest and best release). The album is split up into 3 chapters but the music stays consistent. The story is basically about a vampire who must endure darkness throughout the ages on his quest to find and destroy his evil master and regain his human soul. The quality and production of this album is superb. All 13 tracks are fantastic, my favourite being track 9. Miracle (it sends shivers down my spine it's that good). Ben Sotto has a unique voice and a fantastic vocal range. His lyrics are great, and together with the backing choir they blow you away. The guitar solos are unmatched - 12 guitars sometimes even more are playing at once (for overdubs and other stuff). The drumming is the fastest I've heard. Unfortunately drummer Maxence Pilo has since left the band (along with guitarist Frédéric Leclercq and bassist Pierre-Emmanuel Pelisson) so hopefully his replacement Thomas Das Neves will be able to keep up the pace on their next album. Anyhoo it seems I cant say enough good things about this band/album, and I'm not the only one. In fact I don't think anyone has submitted a review for DUST TO DUST and not given it 5 stars...

BUY THIS ALBUM NOW!!!
For more info check out http://www.heavenly.fr.st/

This album is amazing. How are these guys not much much bigger? I listen to it almost every day and it never gets old.

This is heavenly's 3rd studio release, and by far, their best release. The album sports 13 tracks, broken up into 3 chapters, for a tad over 70 minutes worth of good, quality music.

The album starts off with a vocal demonstration, and quickly moves into the first muscial piece, Evil. Most of the songs follow through with the same format. It's important to note: this album is nothing new, with all the power metal out there, they are very much the same. There are a few things that allow Heavenly to stand out from the rest. Sotto has a great voice, sometimes it's far too overpowering, and they allow the keyboards to take center stage, which is apparent as the album starts off with Evil.

The story of the album is one of a vampire who fights to regain his humanity, and goes up against challenge after challenge to overcome it and the urges of being a vampire. At the end, as sung through in ...dust to dust, he suffers wounds which even he can not heal through, and dies, but as he dies, he dies as a human and not a vampire.

Overall, the album is good, and even being slightly generic, the album has definately spent alot of time in my player and on various playlists.

Straight from France comes the latest Heavenly album, divided in 3 parts, each with a different sound. The idea of a themed album is quite common now, but finding something different out of everyday lore can be quite difficult. So Heavenly set their story in a middleage town that is besiged by vampires, one in particular takes pleasure in converting unsuspecting travelers. The album begins with an introduction to this fantasy world, very melodic and orchestral. The second part follows suit with a more progressive sound, and finally the third part, and perhaps the more intense one, finishes with true Power/Speed Metal, very heavy and fast. Definitely woth 18 bucks.

Original? Not really. Perfectly written, executed, and produced? Yes. This band sounds like Helloween, Angra, and Gamma Ray, sometimes blatantly so. The singer mimics Hansen (GR) and Matos (Angra) from time to time and hits Matos' highs even! Throw in some Symphony X and Helstar for the neoclassical shredding and a vampire story line and you've got a band that wears some impressive influences on it's sleeve. For once though, I really don't care. This is heavy, speedy, and unbelievably talented stuff! The neoclassical shredding is stunning with solos that match anyone. The rhythm section us super solid with actual audible and interesting bass work. Honestly, Lost Horizon is the only band in recent years that has brought this kind of intensity and passion to power metal and that's some good company! Anyone who normally stays away from more standard power metal but is a fan of the mentioned bands can pick this up blind as their one clone band for the year. I think you'll be surprised.

French melodic power metallers, Heavenly return with their third, and clearly best, release DUST TO DUST. Although this concept album is divided into 3 chapters, musically there is not noticeable difference between them, so I assume chapter divisions are for storyline. The story is atypical for a power metal band as it tells the story of a man bitten by a vampire who is then doomed to fight against the urge to feed throughout the centuries.

DUST TO DUST was mainly recorded in the band's own studio in Hyeres in southern France. The sound of the album is as expected for this style of metal, immaculate. As for the actual songs, well, when Heavenly are good...they are great and such is the case for the majority of the CD with only a few songs that I'd call "filler". Heavenly do not sound so much like Iron Savior like they often did on their debut, since Peit isn't doing his backups or producing. The band has significantly grown and has become much stronger. The vocals are also the best the band has done to date. They are more varried and not always ear shatteringly high which was something that was overdone on the previous album, SIGN OF THE WINNER. The songs that rule on this album stands as some of the very best that power metal has to offer. The downside is that the other tracks lost my attention and seemed like filler.

The CD opens with an intro with some speaking about vampires, sounds like Moonspell on the spoken section. After this typical intro we get to the killing track "Evil". The thundering drums are very much at the forefront here and right away had me nodding along due to their insane intensity. The song hardly lets up and is a power/speed metal masterpiece. Fans of Rhapsody or Gamma Ray will love this one right away. The melody lines and even the vocal style are VERY reminiscent of one of power metal's best bands - Gamma Ray. There is some very nice footwork on the bass drums during the guitar solo. At close to the 5min mark there is a mellow interlude that was unnecessary before it picks back up with another solo section. This song is a great album opener and shows a heavier side of Heavenly. This is not sickly sweet but has more in common with Gamma Ray. The Gamma Ray-ish "Lust For Life" starts out sounding a little like one of Nightwish's orchestrated songs before it moves into the main verses. The huge chorus sections sound very nice and powerful with all the vocals again in the Gamma Ray vein with the large group chant. Then it's onto "Victory (Creature of the night)" which begins very sickly sweet with overly dramatic vocals and piano. When the drums/guitars come in it still has the ballad feel. At about 1:10 the song kicks in with the thundering drums and speedy riffing and redeems itself big time. "Illusion Part 1" and "Illusion Part 2 (The Call of the Wild)" in essence fit together as one song. The vocals on part 2 have some lines sung in a harsher voice that sounds a little forced. It's ok to add in something like this, but not when they sound forced. Since they are not overused it's not a problem for me anyway. This one also has noticeably cool ripping solos...not that the other tracks don't, but it stood out here for me. "The Ritual" begins with clean guitar and pseudo-choir like keys...the song while good, didn't seem to grab my attention to much. Same with "Keepers of the Earth" and the 2003 version of "Miracle". "Fight For Deliverance" picks up the pace again and has the highest note on the album. Yngwie Malmsteen fans will appreciate "Hands of Darkness" which begins like a classic styled Yngwie song. The closing 2 songs "Kingdom Come" and "...Dust to Dust" didn't grab my attention so much, but were not disappointments either.

Now that Heavenly has had more experience they are able to record an album that presents a more mature sound. The band has further developed their own power metal style putting them further up the heap of the power metal scene. While some songs on here didn't grab me, the majority of them is great and definitely makes this worth checking into if you like speedy melodic power metal. If you previously wrote Heavenly off as a weak clone band, then this album should turn your opinion around. I know with each listen I like this album more and more.

AMAZAING! This cd is even better than sing of the winner. Another melodic power metal hit by heavenly. Heavenly produces yet again fantastic vocals with even more fantastic instruments. This cd aslo has a great theme. This time around heavenly tells the story about the travel of a lonely vampire. With power hits on this cd such as victory(creature of the night), illusions(pt 1 and 2), keepers of the earth, miracles(2003 version), and dust to dust this cd will keep listening to it over and over again. Thats not to say that the others songs are mediocre because their not. Everything about this cd rules. A must have for any fan of melodic power metal, or a fan of metal period.

I am a very, very, very spoiled power metal fan, bre! I will listen to every word, every aspect, every melody, every effect, every note of every song, I will pay special attention to the recording and production quality, and I will find exactly what I don't like and I will tell you why I don't like it.

With so few good new power metal releases this year, I thought that I would be stuck listening to Lost Horizon and only Lost Horizon (whose both albums are absolutely incredible, by the way) every day until my birthday when Therion will release its 2 new albums - they could not have chosen a better date to release them.

Then by sheer chance I heard that Heavenly - whose first album I heard, remained unimpressed (it was like an over-sweetened cheesecake version of Helloween/Gamma Ray and I don't like cheesecake) and more or less forgot about them - released their THIRD album. Well, if a band lives long enough to release 3 albums, that in itself is a success. So I got the album...

BUY THIS ALBUM NOW!!!

I have to be honest with myself first. This album is not an absolute masterpiece such as Lost Horizon's "A Flame To The Ground Beneath", so, just by itself, it doesn't deserve 5 stars (though no less than 4-and-a-half would do it justice), but I gave it 5 because it is 1> so much better than their 1st album, and so now I have to get their second album to see what I missed, and 2> because it is such a nice and refreshing suprise in a sea of mediocrity, hatred and evilness.

There are 3 or 4 songs on this album that can be skipped without much feeling of guilt. After all, it is a 70+ minute album - and with the likes of Nocturnal Rites (they are not bad but their newest album "New World Messiah" is) releasing their 40 minute works almost every year, even the length of the album has to be appreciated.

One also has to take into account that on a 70+ minute album not all songs can be perfect. But I can easily put together at least 50 minutes worth of music from this album which I could listen to anytime, anywhere, in any mood.

But one also has to remember that on this album (except maybe for the first track which is not really a song but a vampire's speech) there are no songs which are really bad - as in bad that you should skip them because they are unlistenable. Which is also a success for a 70+ minute album.

Another aspect of this album that I appreciate is the fact that the band has kept the richness of their first album intact - on their first album I loved the richness of the songs - they have more vocal melodies and rhythm changes in every song than pretty much any other non-progressive band I can think of, but the cheesiness kept me away from it - so in this album they have kept the same richness but they got rid of the cheesiness.

Let me point out some highlights. Songs 2-4 are great, especially song #4 - Victory (Creature of the Night). I don't understand people who blame Sonata Arctica for using pop-like vocal melodies in some of their songs. This song has a pop-like chorus and it's lovely - it touches me in the heart and it makes me shiver.

Songs 8 and 9 are also great. Especially track 9 (Miracle) - it really is a 9 minute long miracle. The chorus reminds me a bit of Edguy's chorus in Theater of Salvation, except that the topic here is love and there salvation and I am not a big fan of metal songs about salvation.

Songs 11-13 are also lovely, especially the ending track - it can easily be compared in emotion and athmosphere to Dragonland's "A Thousand Points Of Light" from the album "Holy War" - which is an (up to now) unparalleled song about a man doing what a man is not supposed to be able to do, ascending into the sky and bringing justice upon those who live there.

The whole album still reminds me very much of some songs on Gamma Ray's album "Rebellion in Dreamland", except that these songs are richer and less predictable.

Musicianship: Great guitar playing (some of the solos can make me cry), amazing drumming, very noticeable and well-executed bass performance (especially during gallop parts), great and very fun to listen to keyboards (maybe because I play keyboards too so I pay special attention to them), and of course amazing lead and backing vocals.

This band can be looked at as a mixture of Gamma Ray, Helloween, and Edguy, but with much richer songs and with a lot more rhythm changes, and (especially on this album) much less predictability and cheese.

Overall, this is an amazing piece of music which shows that metal is far from being dead, and that metal actually is a worthy way of life.

Buy this album, you will not regret it.