DREAMS IN FRAGMENTS is a Swiss Symphonic Metal band; "Reflections of a Nightmare," is their full-length debut.  Whenever someone speaks of this genre, any band is compared to the big names like EPICA, NIGHTWISH, DELAIN, SIRENIA.  Truth be told, all those bands sound different from each other and DREAMS IN FRAGMENTS don't sound like any of them either. Their sound is deeply rooted in Gothic Metal, especially with the lead vocals provided by Seraina Schopfer, who has a clean, ethereal pitch.  Guitarist Christian Geissmann also provides Death growls, which is a nice touch to his riffs that, while nothing mind blowing, are extremely solid and often times catchy.

"Everytime," opens with a Gothic atmosphere-the keys are obviously an important part of this band and they are well done.  It isn't a complicated song and has a basic structure, which is a problem for the album as a whole, but it has a nice heavy groove to the guitars and some powerful drumming from Franc Fritschi.  With only one guitar, Jan Thomas is responsible for much for the low end but he doesn't stick out as much as I would like due to the production—it is so clear and sharp that a lot of the bite is taken out of the music. "The Maze," comes to life with clean keys that open up to pure symphonics with an undercurrent of distortion.  During the first round of vocals, the guitars become clean with ambient keys highlighting the wonderful vocals.  The later half of the song gets much heavier with standout bass, a good solo, and some clever keys.  Still, the songs slides back into the chorus before ending, prompting me to wish the band fleshed out their overall sound a bit more.

Fortunately, the album's later half is better. "Falling with a Crown," is a more immediate song, complete with decent Death growls that switch lines with the clean vocals.  This approach has been done a hundred times before but it still works well.  The riffs and keys work very well together, in tandem in a much more interesting way than some of the other songs.  The sudden tempo change around the 2:48 mark is well placed and keep the song interesting until the end.  This one is under four minutes but they did more with than some of the other songs, including the longer ones.

"Little Red," is highlighted by a slick opening guitar riff, one of the best on the album.  The rhythm and cadence of the vocals glides along effortlessly with the music.  The drums are especially rumbling, coming along like a bulldozer in spite of the melodic music. All in all, DREAMS IN FRAGMENTS have released a quality, above average Symphonic Metal album—it is heavy, loaded with beautiful keys, and soaring vocals.  I think the band could be even better in the future if they expand on their ideas and fill the songs more.  I look forward to their future releases.