Artist: DREAMS OF SANITY
Album: THE GAME (CD)

Release date: 2000
Media type: CD

With an almost endlessly seeming delay of nearly one year, Tyrolia's DREAMS OF SANITY finally present their third album "The Game".

Had the two predecessors "Komodia" and "Masquerade" been based on literary models by Dante Alighieri ("Divine Comedy") and Gaston Leraux ("The Phantom Of The Opera"), so the new album again takes up a concept, yet this time idea and lyrical realisation come from bassist Michael Knoflach.

The story, which tells the life of a human from the cradle to the grave is a walk on the razor's edge through all the ups and downs of a life. Sadness and pain, but also love and joy, all the emotions that the protagonist "the Creature" has to live through, are almost perfect for the very variable musical conveyance of the story.

And here DOS have surpassed themselves. Had you been able to categorise them as Gothic Metal, "The Game" still has the typically melancholic Gothic-sounds, but the essence of the songs should more be labelled as Progressive Rock / Metal. It features some classic (not True or something like that...) Metal that on the one hand has been enriched with progressive elements and bombast, but on the other side also has the necessary amount of melody and melancholy, together forming a great mixture of all Metal-genres. Apart from the technical abilities of the musicians, singer Sandra Schleret with her melodic and emotional voice gives the DOS-sound its uniqueness as she manages to vary in the various pitches and emotions. Just the often-used voice-vibrato is a story for itself.

I won't give you any tips for checking out this CD, because you should view "The Game" as an overall artwork.

All in all you could describe DREAM OF SANITY's "The Game" as Metal on a high level and those, who feel attracted by that should have no regrets about buying this album.

TRACKLIST:

1. In ... (1:28)
2. The Creature That You Came To See (2:09)
3. Time To Set The Stones (4:06)
4. The Beginning That Lies (7:40)
5. The Empress - Through The Looking Glass (A Dream?) (10:19)
6. A Window To The Sky (5:22)
7. And So (I Walk On) (3:25)
8. We.ll.sea (6:21)
9. The Creature That You Came To See (reprise) (4:11)
10. ... Finity (2:11)

LINE-UP:

- Sandra Schleret / vocals
- Christian K. Marx / guitar
- Andreas Wildaur / guitar
- Michael Knoflach / bass
- Frederic Heil / keybaord
- Harald Obexer / drums