Customer Reviews

Evilized

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I bought this CD after listening to samples of it at a music store in the mall. I was quite impressed with the quality as compared to Symphony X, Blind Guardian or Iced Earth. Dream Evil takes Swedish power metal to a new level. There is not a bad song on the CD. The vocals are particularly excellent, and there are mellow songs as well as more angry or depressing ones. I can tell you that if you are a power metal fan, you will enjoy this CD. "Break the Chains", "Bad Dreams" and "Children of the Night" are great heavy ballads, while "Evilized" and "Forevermore" are comparably mellow and emotional. There is a good variety of songs on this CD. This album is definitely worth its price. Buy it.

I'm not going to go over every detail of the CD, if you want that you can look down there at all the other reviews. I just want to point out that EVILIZED is, by far, Dream Evil's best album. It has the best lyrics out of their three--there's no dragons and/or steel, and "metal for life" themes are kept to a minimum--and the songwriting is overall better than the others too. Of course both Dragonslayer and Book of Heavy Metal have their moments, but I don't think there's a single song on Evilized that deserves less than 4 stars. Pure ass-kickage all the way through. HIGHLIGHTS: Break the Chains, Fight you Till the End, Evilized (maybe their best song,) Forevermore, Live a Lie. Children of the Night is a (overrated) fan favorite as well.

I'd recommend this as anyone's first Dream Evil album, although the very song that got me into metal was The Prophecy from Dragonslayer. That one's great too, with several amazing songs and a couple throwaway tracks. Book of Heavy Metal, their latest release, is probably their worst I'd say. More "filler" tracks, less variety, there's maybe 3 great songs from it I'd still listen to. And after the vast lyrical improvements from Dragonslayer to Evilized, the cheese has returned! Evilized wasn't like a profound journey through the human psyche or anything, but there was the occasional line that made me say, "Hmm, that's clever." Book of Heavy Metal is just all about how awesome metal is and how metal they are...

Anyway, you can go to dreamevil.se (the official site,) where they have mp3 downloads of Chasing the Dragon, Break the Chains and the video for Book of Heavy Metal. Then decide what you think.

Sweden's Dream Evil's latest offering to the gods of metal leaves me wishing there was a bit more... and more "true" feeling as well. There's no doubt that it's refreshing to see someone return to that 80s sound and make it work here in the new millenium. I liked the album... there are some really good songs. Just not enough of them. They have a lot of talent. Gus G. is an awesome shredder and gives a Vivian Campbell (ex Dio, ex Def Leppard) "Holy Diver" like performance. Niklas Isfeltd shows he can sing with the best of them still sounding a bit like Anders Zackrisson (ex Nocturnal Rites) but at times even sounding like Foreigner! There are definitely a lot of 80s influences. Highlights include: "Break the Chains", "Evilized", "Bad Dreams" (could've been written by Alice Cooper), "Children of the Night" (hard-rockin' 80s sound), "Live a Lie" and "Fear the Night" (killer chorus). All in all Dream Evil have delivered a good, but not great slab of pure no nonsense heavy metal... just imagine what they could do if they were serious?

If you read any of my reviews you know I'm a power metal freak so you can probably guess that my review is good. Dream Evil is good but I would recomened Dragon Slayer insted of Evilized. Evilized is good but some of the songs just arn't good. Where as Dragon Slayer almost all the songs are good. The best songs on this cd are: "Evilized" because this song is just plain cool. Another good one is "Invisable" this song make s you want to trun the volume of your cd player way up. The best song on this cd is probably "Made Of Metal" iit is a thundering song that sounds like something Judas Priest would do it is also the on;y power metal song that I know of that has a curse word. If you are going to buy a Dream Evil cd buy Dragon Slayer this one is good but Dragon slayer is much better.

Evilized is the second release by Dream Evil in less than two years. Compared to their first release, Dragonslayer, this one is more raw and not nearly as refined as the first. It comes across as being recorded live instead of being a produced recording. Guitarist/Keyboardist Fredrik Nordstrom is no stranger to wearing the producer's hat, so I have to believe the "Live Studio" sound was what he was looking for. The CD is very good and the music is outstanding, but I found that the vocals were a bit muddled. Niklas Isfeldt is probably the best vocalist you have never heard of. He is an unbelieveable singer. The only singer I have heard better in the last 25 years is Bruce Dickinson of Iron Maiden. His vocal talents here are somewhat hampered in the recording compared to Dragonslayer. That was the only reason I gave it four stars instead of five. The best tracks are Break the Chains, Evilized and Children of the Night, although I have a special fondness of the song Bad Dreams written by Drummer Snowy Shaw. Snowy did not contribute to the writing of the songs on first CD Dragonslayer, but he made up for it on this recording writing three songs and contributing on three others. He also wrote a terrific ballad called The End, which turned out to be a great ending to the CD. It is real simple. If you are like me and you miss good old fashion heavy metal with guitar players who know really how to play (Gus G. in this case, and a very talented bass player named Peter Stalfors to compliment Gus), I recommend this CD to you. Very good stuff.

Dream Evil sounds quite a bit like Europe (Carrie was possibly the worst song they ever wrote); except the guitar is a little heavier but the vocal and song structure is basically identical. This is not a bad thing... Europe was a great band and so is Dream Evil.

Musically there is very little new ground broken on this album.
The guitar work is great, Dokken, Europe, Iron Maiden and Judas Priest style riffs abound. For instance the guitar part in Forevermore, it's the same as a myriad of other power ballads and Children of the Night is direct out of the Europe bag of tricks.

Dream Evil seems to have taken the 80's tried and true metal riffs and made them their own, and in this the do a wonderful job. They've got a lot of "heart" in every track and it's very apparent that they have quite a lot of potential.

The bottom line is if you're looking to relive the 80's metal or want some good riff based metal grab this, but if you're looking for something innovative you'd be better served by Edguy, Dragonforce, Stratovarious or Symphony X.

I've been listening to a lot of Melodic- and Power-metal over the last few years. Unfortunately the bands not worth hearing are the ones that get all the mainstream publicity (if they get any). Bands like Dream Evil are often overlooked simply because their albums aren't widely available in record stores (at least in my area).
This is an excellent album from a superior melodic metal band.
I recently saw a CD from a mediocre band I've never heard of (and promptly forgot), that had a sticker on it touting them as the "saviors of swedish melodic metal." I say no savior is needed, not with awesome bands like Dream Evil and Hammerfall and a dozen others going strong.

While cheesy at times, this is Dream Evil's best work and deserves all 5 stars. I can overlook the cheese because most of it kicks butt. Do not be nervous about buying it because people used the word "cheese" to describe it; it really is not that pronounced, so no worries. What you mostly get is hardcore riffs, good mid-tempo energy and music that gels nicely. If you like Heavy Metal and don't already have this, what are you waiting for?

I was far too young to appreciate the first wave of heavy metal. Iron Maiden released their landmark album before I was even born. Dream Evil strikes me as a great modern update of the classic heavy metal sound that I missed by about ten years, and after hearing this, I am definitely interested in it. Chant-along songs like Break the Chains and Children of the Night make me wonder why more bands didn't continue with this. While older metalheads may criticize this band for being unoriginal, for me they are a breath of fresh air. Hopefully this band will bring in a whole new generation of young people who otherwise might not even know this type of spirited heavy metal existed! Horns are in the air. Props especially to drummer Snowy Shaw, he is solid.

This is probably Dream Evil's heaviest CD. Every song has deep solid crunching rhythms and excellent vocals. Classic metal in the Priest style. Highly recommended for old school metal purists. Bang Your Head!!