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"Nightmare Records recently has signed a whole new slew of talent and DIMENSION are at the forefront of those signees, along with ETERNAL FLIGHT. I wasn't really sure what to expect from the cover art since it was a little strange; maybe Prog, maybe Power, maybe some kind of futuristic Metal? What I got was a huge Prog release with just a sprinkling of Power.
DIMENSION was founded in 1999 by David and Mane in Mexico. The band eventually relocated to Denver, Colorado and since has toured around parts of the USA, Europe, and Mexico. Their first album Universal was released in 2002 independently, but it was distributed by Nightmare Records. They most recently signed to Nightmare in the past year.
The first two tracks - to be honest - I thought were good tracks, but they didn't really grab me till Freedom Land. This third track has really sweet keyboard sounds at about 1:20 that sounds like some kind of crazy wah wah pedal hooked up to the keyboards. David has a very whispful and soft delivery in this song, but it is still extremely powerful. Oddly enough though his vocal work throughout the album when uses the aforementioned style, but particularly on this song he reminds of Chino Moreno of DEFTONES. There are cetain parts in this song you wont be tapping your front foot due to the overall catchiness. The end of track gets really evil sounding and is fricking sick as fuck and super heavy, easily the highlight of the song.
Broken Heart starts off with a mysterious and mesmerizing keyboard part as well as a riff with a bang your head ultra crunch sound with its balls immediately cut off into a rather tranquil Proggy part. This transition is very nicely timed and fits extremely well due to the contrast. The same riff picks up again at about 2 minutes in and the aggression/roughness behind David's vocals is very captivating with their overall sound and how unique they are sounding on this song particularly. The next song begins with David's vocals in their quieter and softer stage but the riffs still stay crunchy. Around 2:30 a face melting keyboard solo kicks in that is paired with an almost equally technical guitar solo following it.
Dreams is definitely a step in the Prog side and starts off mostly instrumental with another very impressive guitar solo. At roughly 1:30 David's vocals come in which essentially lays the groundwork for the rest of the song being very tranquil and serene. The serene feeling that I was referring to greatly reminds me of PAIN oF SALVATION, but at their less boring finer moments. The second longest song on the album, The Next In Line, begins with an intro of sound kind of radio report regarding a murder and then an equally as killing of a riff steps up and crushes your face. Then at about 4:00 the keyboards just take over for roughly the next two minutes. Certain parts of this keyboard solo are almost spine chilling while others I felt weren't as stunning as the rest though still solid. Then, at about 6:00 the guitar solo that starts out kind of ho hum and then picks up into super sonic speed picking with the keyboard coming in at the end of the solo and laying down a sick layering.
The track that bears the same name as the album is their opus, clocking in at just less than 20 minutes. David's vocals kick in at about 2 minutes and until just shortly before that I didn't notice anything stellar. The chorus really lured me however, with just the way that the vocals and the keyboards blend together in their softer textures and the way that the pulverizing sound of the guitar goes with the bone snapping fury of the drums. For the next 3 minutes or so I don't hear anything really that interesting, but then at about 12:00 minutes the awesome pairing of sweet riffs and spine tingling keyboards comes back. The Power side of DIMENSION really kicks in right after the previous stated part and it extremely upbeat and fast and reminds me of STRATOVARIUS almost, but down tuned. The song kind of loses my attention in the solely instrumental parts, but then again I am not a musician so it is harder for me to appreciate it. I just feel that David's vocals lend so well to the rest of the music that they need to be there. The final track I didn't really care for at all.
This is definitely one of the top Prog releases of the year. DIMENSION very efficiently take elements mainly from the Prog side of things, but litter it with enough Power that most fans from both genres should thoroughly enjoy it. I would recommend it to fans of PAIN oF SALVATION, PAGAN'S MIND and SYMPHONY X." - Metal Temple