Year : 2026 (El Puerto Records Edition)
Style : Melodic Power Metal
Country : Germany
Audio : 320 kbps + all scans
Size : 165 mb
Bio:
Lucid Dreaming is the brainchild of Elvenpath guitarist Till Oberboßel.A project created to tell a fantasy story with the voices of some of the most extraordinary singers of the (underground) Metal scene.No, not another "Metal Opera". Yes, a fascinating listening experience that has everything Metal needs.The first album is entiteld "The Chronicles Pt. I". It was unleashed upon this and other worlds on August 2nd, 2013!
Album:
4 full-length album.I’m a big fan of Power Metal concept albums. Between 2014 and 2020 I gave high grades to each of the albums in Lucid Dreaming’s trilogy, THE CHRONICLES. Now a devastatingly long six years later, Till Oberbobel’s (fix) Lucid Dreaming is back with UPON THE BARRICADES.This time, Till has turned his attention from fiction to non-fiction, from Welsh mythology to German history, specifically the German Revolution of 1848 which saw an uprising of the middle-classes against the aristocracy. They wanted to establish a republic and of course the rich, ruling class was not as keen on that idea! LUCID DREAMING tackles this subject with aplomb and fury.As with his previous trilogy one of the highlights is the extraordinary number of elite Metal warriors he has gathered in his studio army to contribute to this epic piece. I won’t list the two dozen(!) of them in the body of this review, you can see who they are below in the track list section.The action-packed album cover is gorgeous courtesy of Serbian Dusan Markovic, one of my favourite Metal artists. The production quality courtesy of Uwe Lulis (Grave Digger, Rebellion) is world-class.The album starts with a bit an overture-style tune featuring vocal work by Perardi (Airborn), Van Heerden (Strident) and a couple of lesser-known guys called Blaze Bayley and Ralf Scheepers. The four of them push a lot of wind!Up next, perhaps the heaviest fastest track, ‘Black and Red and Gold’ is next, driven by the relentless double-kick drumming of Alex Holzwarth and it features a skull-frying solo as well!The story carries on with various vocalists playing various characters and the lyrics are certainly above average with lots of political talk of ‘constitutions’, ‘confederation’, and ‘parliaments’… grand nation-building topics matched by the intensity of the raging Power Metal. There are lots of sonic embellishments as well to add flavour and character; sound effects, sound effects of battle, acoustic segments, huge gang vocals (see ‘Waves Of The Danube’), and some orchestral sections as well.As I’ve said before, I really like when an artist takes a historical topic and ads a creative flair. UPON THE BARRICADES is in the same league as other excellent historical and mythological songs and albums by artists like, Manowar (Greece 12 BC), Alamanac (Russia, 1584), Iced Earth, (USA, 1863) and Ring Of Fire (Leningrad, 1941-44).UPON THE BARRICADES is superb conceptual Power Metal, start to finish. Engaging, intelligent loaded with all-star talent, well-written, produced and performed, and most of all fun, this is one of the best concept albums of the year. Long live the Forty-Eighters!
Line Up:
Till Oberboßel - Guitars - See also: Elvenpath, ex-Abramelin, ex-Satanic Wizard, ex-Ausgebrannter Kadaver, ex-Endless Pain, ex-Kiffed Elephant, ex-Nostradamus, ex-Thunder Gods
Alex Holzwarth - Drums
+ Guests:
Blaze Bayley
Ralf Scheepers
Alessio Perardi
Deon van Heerden
Zak Stevens
Harry Conklin
Giuseppe Ciapone
Piet Sielck
Daniel Heiman
Erdmann Görg
Said Khochsima
Siegfried Schüßler
Gerre
HP Piller
Rain Irving
Marius Danielsen
Krsto Balic
George Thomaidis
Tracklist:
01. Confederation
02. Black And Red And Gold
03. The Springtime Of Peoples
04. Tyrant In Disguise
05. Upon The Barricades
06. Parliament Of Spring
07. A Courageous Decision
08. Waves Of The Danube
09. Farewell
10. Puppets On Strings
Download links for all albums only on our blog here: http://goodmetalandhar.do.am/
