Our military-grade stainless-steel three-thousand horse power laser-eyed robot just arrived, what do you wanna do with it? Give it energy drinks for a month and teach it drumming. That's how the foundations of "Tangled In Dream" were laid. Yeah, that may be an overstatement, and I have heard drummers complain of the drumming on that particular album, but my ears could not catch anything wrong and did catch plenty of right. VANISHING POINT's millennial offering gets new life injected in it with this year's re-issue, containing a second CD of covers and bonus tracks. The album is already pretty popular among fans of progressive and melodic metal in general, although it may remain in the shadow of VANISHING POINT's more recent releases. Undeservingly so, as nothing so rich and beautiful should be downplayed. The album may lack the polish and finesse of their newer work, but it is charged with unmistakable raw authenticity. That in no way means the music is rough or simplistic - the compositions show a lot of soul, although sometimes obfuscated by a dense mix of intertwining ideas, which could be hard to follow. They are however enhanced by beautiful symphonic segments, ferocious drumming, and brilliant emotional vocals.

The album opens on "Surreal", which after an abstract few seconds starts at high speed and sets the mood for the whole album. The song is amazing at creating contrast by swaying grandiose emotional melodic segments and then crushing them with heavy drumming. "Samsara", which is supposed to be one of the hits on the album, feels pretty chaotic, and ends up being a bit bland. Despite the strong rhythm section, the song feels a bit too long. "Closer Apart" continues the theme in a cleaner, more refined manner, mixing dreamy atmosphere with energetic drumming, before "Bring On the Rain", which evokes the image of soaring through the air between mountain peaks, doubles down on the emotional side with its memorable chorus and softer guitars.

"Never Walk Away" is an eight-minute-long epic that, despite sticking mostly to slower, heavier approach, like to play with tempo a lot, and creates a great emotional charge, delivered in a ground-shaking manner. The song starts rough and heavy, and ends on a percussion solo, which sounds weird but works amazing. Aside from "Two Minds And One Soul" and "I Will Awake", which feels like a pretty generic melodic rock song, again the illusion only being broken by the etched in more or less entire album super energetic and prolific drumming, the album makes a solid turn for the softer side of things, finishing mostly on ballads. "Father" features some really heavy and fast segments, but they serve mostly to underline the song's melancholy, rather than to set it as the album's heavy hitter. Right after the eight minutes of classic progressive awesomeness, comes the short, gentle, eponymous closer "Tangled In Dream".

The bonus disc starts off with a re-recorded version of "Samsara", which features prominent symphonic moments in a more refined manner, but sacrifices the raw feel of the original. Then there are the covers of "Separate Ways" and "On The Turning Away", originally by JOURNEY and PINK FLOYD. The covers add more of the signature drumming and less prominent vocals, as well as symphonic moments here and there. The perfect for fans of the original songs, like myself, who would like to hear the progressive take on the classic. The atmosphere is, of course, wildly different, but even though I am usually opposed to covers that don't radically change the song ("Hurt" by JOHNNY CASH being one example of covers that do), I did enjoy listening to VANISHING POINT's take. Whether "The Endless Road" is fun or boring stays open to interpretation, it is an average mostly acoustic rock song. "Veil of Deceit" however is super energetic, hard and colorful mix of a myriad of original ideas. The bonus disc finishes on five acoustic live takes on popular songs, for whoever enjoys that kind of thing.

"Tangled In Dream" is a classic album, and it's easy to see why. Even though the years between '95 and '05 were a bit difficult for bands producing melodic metal, it is exactly in this time that VANISHING POINT laid the foundations of their career, one of those foundations being the incredibly solid "Tangled In Dream". Almost every song on the album has something to fascinate with, the melodies are distinct, the contrast is strong, the emotional core is ablaze, and the touch is tender yet firm. The softness can get a bit tiring at times, especially considering how long the album is, but that is matter of taste. The accusations of too "optimistic" drumming which fails at times - I find them hard to justify, as despite the perfect vocal execution, the rhythm section remains this album's strongest asset.