It looks like the guys from Germany's DREADFUL MINDS are in the best time of their musical lives, the fulfillment of their dream is tangible now with the release of "Love Hate Lies", the result of an intense period of work since they have regrouped in 2010 after a few years off the scene!

The album contains great 14 songs with a strong focus on the melodies, some are brand new, others are older but in a new reworked version, anyway everything sounds pretty coherent, the omnipresent keys are in constant opposition with the sharp and driving guitar riffs ("Reborn")!

Each track contains its own dose of hook with a real dynamic pace courtesy of André Tischler's huge drums sound ("Wake Up"), but the strongest asset is certainly the clean and powerful vocals of Holger Weckbach who deliver some first class vocal here ("Lost My Heart" or "Changing Memories") like John Bush meets Zak Stevens meets Gary Hughes meets DC Cooper!

Beside the solid, ambitious and inspired songwriting method, another high profile ingredient is the sonic design which is colossal and it can compete easily with any of the biggest production of the last 20 years or so!

Stylistically it remains in the same early 90's Melodic Power Metal mode, early VANDEN PLAS/POVERTY'S NO CRIME/GLENNMORE or Sweden's SEVENTH WONDER/TOKEN with perhaps a slightest AOR tendency notably in the harmonious keyboards arrangements ("What U Give Is What U Get"), the progressive parts and typical elements are always merged in the song structure as a guitar line ("Breaking Circles"), a keys motif ("Your Love Was A Lie") or a technical drums lick ("Left"/"The Growing Fear") keeping the continuity of the groovy rythm intact ("Sixty Feet Under").

"Caught In Illusion" is a good summary of their vision, really Heavy but catchy enough to permit some instrumental digression, a good balanced mix between the best elements of Euro Metal, Heavy AOR and Soft Prog Metal deserved by a very solid and edgy interpretation, a dense musicianship wrapped in a perfectly engineered state of the art Production an exciting new/old genre updated with classic improvements... Well, you should understand my rhetoric drift by now, don't you?

Buy on sight!