MYSTERIOUS LADY ON COVER PORTENDS WHAT MYSTERIES WITHIN ?
Mr D. | Cave Creek, Az United States | 04/20/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I love this Album!! I really do.
German Prog - power metal band Golden Dawn seems to be charting new territory, with this release, by mixing three disparate metal sub-genres creating a new sound which I have heard only once before from fellow germans Sunterra.
Perhaps this is a new sub-genre coming from Germany, which consists of power, progressive and melodic death metal somewhat interwoven but with each style standing on it's own for portions of the album. This is a powerful performance of highly melodic music featuring clean and growling male vox including, what I call, dueling male vox on a couple songs and super female vocals on the last two songs(I wonder if she's the lady on the cover) which sound an awful lot like Stevie Nicks all supported by extremely proficient, tight musicianship. The song I like least is track 5 the title song, Masquerade which I give three stars. Track 1, Silent Inferno is an Inferno of sound of lush symphonic background at a fast (power) tempo with clean and dueling growling vocals. It certainly isn't silent (4 stars). Track 2 Doomsday Celebration is an instrumental I call renaissance metal with a fast tempo and crunchy guitars and a harpsicord (5 stars). Track 3, Alive and Immortal is mid to fast paced piece with a catchy melody and clean plus growling vocals (4 stars). Track 4, Where Dragons Reign is my co-favorite. I can just picture this fabulously melodic song being sung in male chorus in a medieval tavern (5 stars). Track 6, Enthralled by Unknown Dimensions has a progressive and viking metal fast tempo full sound (4 stars). Track 7, Unborn Again is another medieval sounding fast paced song, featuring crunchy guitars harpsicord and piano (5 stars). Track 8 A Memories Reflection is a short acoustic guitar interlude (4 stars). Track 9, Sic Transit Gloria Mundi, like track 1, has a powerful intro leading to sad whining guitars ala Hotel California and some electronic sounds. It has a strong beat and on this song our phenomenal lady singer makes her first appearance (5 stars). Track 10, Angel , my other co-favorite again features our mysterious singer in a very creative, catchy slow to mid paced song (5 stars). I'm afraid I'm at a loss to draw parallels to similar artists other than the aforementioned Sunterra. Maybe Mjolnir, but they are quite inferior to Golden Dawn. Also, and this is stretching things, a little bit like recent Samael. This is Golden Dawn's sophomore release. Their debut was The Art of Dreaming which received some acclaim, but is lacking when compared to this effort, in my opinion. This is my sleeper pick for 2003."
Track Listings (10) - Disc #1