There seems to be something in the water over in Europe that is causing musicians to get nostalgic about the past power-prog metal stylings back in the day and long to rekindle the magic of a forgotten time. Frenchman and multi-instrumentalist Jean-Michel Volz and founder of SEASON OF DREAMS intends to resurrect that lost era that combined heavy, power and prog metal into an unholy chimera of what some may simply refer to as "cheese metal" while others revere it as the holy grail. In 2018, Volz first asked his friend Pasi Humppi of Swedish power metal act FRETERNIA to come sing for him but was unable to join due to scheduling conflicts. As a consolation, Humppi introduced Volz to Johannes Nyberg who had three semi-successful albums in the late 90s and early 2000s with SYMPHONY X clones ZONATA but broke up in 2003 due to the frustration of getting no recognition outside of Sweden. The duo started writing songs and developed a good chemistry between the two. Nyberg's brother John Nyberg even provided some lead guitar on some of the songs.

What they created with their debut "My Shelter" seems to be a concept album musing about the effect that war can have on the vulnerable. Complete with an intro and outro - specifically, "Before the War" and "After the War" - the album is framed by two beautiful piano based pieces. Unfortunately, the titles are very apt for the effect of the tracks in between, with each listen being a slog in the trenches of sonic banality. It starts fairly quickly with the first major track "In the Rubble". Skill level aside - which itself its quite impressive - the instruments seem to try for a TRANS-SIBERIAN level of theatricality but only ever seemed to elicit groans as I cringed at how cliché everything sounded. The vocals especially are trying for a mix between Ronnie James Dio and Luca Turilli formerly of Rhapsody but sings with terribly irritating vibrato on nearly every note that wavers between in and out of tune. Quickly, it becomes evident that Volz is also not a wordsmith by the mercilessly repeated line "In the rubble they will find your teddy bear".

However there are some decent moments that can be gleaned from a less than stellar debut. I liked the anthemic "We Are Soldiers", the added strings could have been louder and it really sonically embodies a soldier's feeling of being at war. "Angel Forever" provides a nice reprieve from the endless power metal onslaught as a decently constructed ballad. The title track even has a fascinating guitar solo that is unfortunately buried by the overused double bass from the drummer.

Unfortunately, that brings me to the one thing that mars any possibility of saving this album - the production. It is atrocious. The drums are so overpowering and set to uncomfortable ear piercing levels that they fight with the other instruments for sonic supremacy in every track. One can now understand that with the overactive vibrato style of singing from the vocals, the guitar theatrics that are common with power metal and horribly mixed drums, the record makes for an uncomfortable listen from beginning to end. The cover art is quite gorgeous and if someone were to peruse through a record store and see it they may be bold and give these guys a chance. Do yourself and your ears a favor and skip it. Maybe the band will learn from their mistakes on their second record.