Well, after the Golden Age of Gothic Rock and Indie Rock in the 80s, when bands as JOY DIVISION, THE SISTERS OF MERCY, THE CURE, KILLING JOKE, FIELDS OF THE NEPHILIM and others released their first albums and reached commercial success. Obviously some bands earned that energy and format of doing things, so we can say that the Finnish band GRAVE PLEASURES is an heir of them. "Dreamcrash", their new album, is here to show that my words mean.

They're not as introspective or depressive as JOY DIVISION, nor experimental and full of choirs and Opera elements as SISTERS OF MERCY. We could say that this quintet is on the same way of THE CURE on their Pop orientated work, and musically accessible as THE SMITHS, but their greatest similarity is with the Pop band U2. Good melodic voices, fine guitars (with some good distorted moments, as we hear on "Futureshock", where Punk Rock influences seem to appear), and a good work on bass and drums. Yes, they are really good, besides there were many band in this way on the past.

The sound quality is all that the quintet need. Yes, it's pretty clean, with all the instruments sounding as they must, and the choice of instrumental tunes was very good, indeed.

The album is good from the beginning to its last song. All of them can satisfy the fans from this style. But I'd like to point as their best moments the purely Indie Rock "Utopian Scream" (with very good work from vocals, and hooking melodies), the nasty Rock and Roll "Futureshock" (even with the Pop orientation of the song, we can feel the nasty energy of it. The rhythmic kitchen is doing a simple, but strong work), the melodic and introspective ballad "Crisis", the darkened and accessible Rock and Roll song "Worn Threads", and the rebel swing that is presented on the Pop Rock song "No Survival".

A good album, and would be a great success on the second half of the 80s, but will gain some fans now.<