Album Review: Allen/Alzon - Army of Dreamers
Reviewed by Richard Oliver
Another day and another collaborative pairing from Frontiers Records. There have been plenty of these ‘supergroup’ collaborations and although they are clearly created as a cash grab there is no denying that some of these teamings of famous rock and metal singers has produced some fantastic albums. Army Of Dreamers is the second collaborative effort between singers Russell Allen (Symphony X) and Anette Olzon (The Dark Element, ex-Nightwish) with the music provided by Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear) on guitars, bass and keyboards and Anders Köllerfors on the drums.
As can be expected from a Frontiers Records release this is very slick and melodic music being a mix of melodic heavy metal with elements of hard rock, power metal and symphonic metal. Both Russell and Anette get equal footing on the songs, sharing out the vocal duties with one usually taking the lead on the verses and the other on the choruses and vice versa. You also get plenty of moments where they duet and their voices work extremely well together.
The music itself is quite riff driven with plenty of fantastic lead guitar solos and lots of grandiose symphonic keyboards whilst the songwriting itself is very hook driven with big melodies and huge choruses. There isn’t much in the way of variation though there is a mix of symphonically led yet guitar driven songs such as the A Million Skies, Carved Into Stone and I Am Gone compared to gentler and more emotionally driven semi-ballad songs such as Out Of Nowhere and Until It’s Over.
Army Of Dreamers is another solid collaborative effort and some fine melodic metal. It’s not the best album you will hear this year but there is excellent musicianship and great songwriting. It may fall into the trap of being a bit predictable and one dimensional but sometimes a teaming of great singers, songwriters and musicians is all that’s needed. This is a solid release containing some fine melodic metal tunes.
