DREAMWALKERS INC. are a Symphonic Progressive Metal band from Amersfoort, Netherlands. They are the side project of TDW (Tom De Wit) and they play under the name DREAMWALKERS INC. in order to play live the material. Both bands are pretty much only one and this live album has a plethora of songs from the almost 20 years of TDW.

I was wondering why there was a live album after only one official release of DREAMWALKERS INC. but with further reading about the band, I understood it was to separate both band entities and have a name for themselves only for the live material which is pretty rare honestly, it's akin to a singer with a backing band that always changes but I digress. I thought it was a nice touch though to have another band name and thought it was quite original.

They already had that symphonic and theatrical approach to their music and it's further accentuated on this live release. When you have 8 band members, it's not easy so everyone stands out, it's a bit of overkill no less. Every band member has to know his part and it's akin to a Shakespeare play, everyone has their roll to fill but you have some very strong musicians and the sound is rich and profound. It's not overly theatrical like AYREON (another famous band from the Netherlands no less!) and all of his characters but everything is well thought about and each song has a very streamlined structure.

You obviously have those 1970's English Progressive Rock elements like KING CRIMSON, SOFT MACHINE, that's a big influence on their sound and the overall structure. I don't think they were influenced that much but the effervescence of a band like CAN and PFM, it's not the overly Neo-Classical Progressive Rock that was a big deal back in the deal. DREAMWALKERS INC. are more of a traditional Progressive Rock band with some Symphonic elements, akin to DREAM THEATER on ''The Score'' album, yet a bit less powerful.

The musicianship is fine, nothing over the top and yet you have 4 guitarists and they don't give that wall of sound I was hoping for. There is too much going on at the same time and it felt chaotic. You have a very capable frontwoman that has some nice range but not enough charisma and energy to really want me to continue to listen to the rest of the album and I got a bit bored. The potential is there, the talent too but it's just nothing overly original yet it's still complex and inventive. It lacks a bit of texture and it feels uninspired here and there.

I know it was a calculated risk to record a live album, when you have that many band members, you want the sound of the band to shine and it was a tad disappointing and not an overly long album. I thought that 47 minutes wasn't too long and didn't engage the audience like I thought they did. The overall arrangements in the recording studio would have been much better and would have given the songs a more powerful emotion. You want everything to sound rich, sound like a ton of bricks but I didn't have that feeling inside of me when I listened to it. It's not bad at all but it lacks the energy of something that could have been done in the studio.