So how about featuring something standard, or might I say traditional, common? A pattern that has been known for many years gone cold but like the Phoenix, rose from his burnet ashes back to life. How about giving something back to Euro Power Metal? With all the progress that has been going the European melodic Metal scene, when it comes to contemporary 80s modulated Metal music, some wish to stay behind and smell the fortunes of the past. In the case of the thirteen years running DREAMTALE, from the Finnish iced plains where there is barely light, slanting on the late 90s Euro Power Metal has been their thing all along. Throughout their long career, and it can be considered long, they choked the life out of harmonies, great guitars meet keyboards melodic settings and catchy fragments in order to stay safe but not on the loop as lots of other bands following their style. It is certainly not a bad thing of course as every musical career has its different decision making and reasoning, but in the long run material, no matter how catchy and accessible to others, should be zinged a bit in order to capture more attention. What I just described to you was exactly how I felt about DREAMTALE's new album, "Epsilon", via IceWarrior Records.

Without wasting any time with overtures, DREAMTALE went straight with the opening "Firestorm" in with full throttle speed riffing, catchy rhythms and haunting melodies, sticking hard to the back of the head like a leech. I liked their dynamics as their passion for this undying piece of music that has been nourishing their motivation for years. Aside from this particular track, which I enjoyed, this whole album smelled like a sort of fusion of early 90s STRATOVARIOUS, old HELLOWEEN and LABYRINTH among others where speed, melody and divergent keyboards gathered for a smooth run.  My journey continued with the melodic setting of "Each Time I Die" and the tantalizing "Fly Away". These two tracks on their own are glorious, lots of choir singing orchestra, high flying soloing, and again catchy riffing. However, it hit me that it was actually a reoccurring status, DREAMTALE never backed down from producing the same stuff all over without even noticing it, or maybe they did. I won't remind the originality factor, because it is not about it. DREAMTALE has been going on for years making the same things and it's their pattern, the musical motto. Yet, and I am being honest about it, this sort of repeating cycle leveled the excitement a bit due to the material being too obvious too calculated to sound just right, safe, following the same formula. When I reached "Reasons Revealed" I rested my latter opinion a bit and had a chance to experience a wonderful ballad mixed by Heavy and Power Metal with amazing vocal performance. Its easiness actually made me feel better because that was that slight spice, sense of change I looked for. On that point, it didn't have to ingenious, but it had to something else than usual. "Lady of a Thousand Lakes" brought back the album's robust energies that reminded slightly of the "Lady Lost In Time", the old LABYRINTH super song but DREAMTALE made a bit more melodic.

Generally, "Epsilon" is more than a decent release. It shows a lot of passion to the melodic end of Metal music. DREAMTALE are one of the truest bands of the Euro Power Metal wave and I hope that they would remain so. Nevertheless, it would be proper to take some slight experimentations in order to not let their listeners to stumble upon yet another album that would end its effect after the first listen.