DREAMFIRE's "Atlantean Symphony" is a sweeping, epic music that sparks the imagination while covering you in layers of atmospheric tones and keys.  But what, or whom, is DREAMFIRE?  By the opening sentence of this review, they could very well be the next hottest band in Symphonic Metal. Or perhaps they are some new Power Prog band?

Nope.  DREAMFIRE isn't even metal. In fact, they aren't really even a band per say.  It is a one man project from mastermind Osirion, who wrote, performed, recorded, mixed, and mastered the whole album himself.  The sounds contained within were done with just keyboards.  I need you, dear reader, to understand how amazing that really is.  When I say keyboards, I don't mean some bare minimum symphonic undertones or some halfhearted video game sounding music that might as well be a MIDI file from 1998.  This album is so deep and expertly arranged that I actually had to message the man himself and find out what instruments he used to do all this.  I was blown away with his response as I'm sure you will be once you listen to this.  No, this isn't metal, but I assure you it is some heavy music. Much like swimming in waves of deep where you can no longer touch, the musical waves approach you, their impending melancholy battering you back to the shore.

Emotions run high throughout the album, ranging from a moodiness to despair and even hope mixed with the excitement of the dawning of a new day.   Wonder is another emotion that Osirion rips from you.  The second track, "Approaching Atlantean Monoliths" is the musical equivalent of your eyes piercing the veil of reality and seeing, for the first time, things that shouldn't exist but do. "Of Grandeur and Fragility" is probably my favorite part of this opus.  The music is indeed wide in its scope but between the musical notes, between the lines if you will, the beginning of broken hope can be heard rearing its ugly head. "Through Fire Into Legend," is the very opposite.  The music shows me that perhaps, above all else, hope indeed floats upon these cold waters.  Perseverance is the key of survival and also of Osirion's own musical journey.

Music is the universal language and it doesn't always need heavy guitars or guttural vocals to convey a message.  As much as I love metal, music itself in all forms a value to us all and DREAMFIRE's  "Atlantean Symphony" is as grandiose and passionate as anything I've heard this year.