Dungeon are a 4 piece Australian Power Metal group who hail from Sydney, Australia. The group formed in August 1989, and after 16 years, a huge number of line up changes and 3 albums (plus a number of other releases), the band has recently annouced they are parting ways. A Rise To Power is Dungeons second album, and was released in August 2002.
The Band:
Lord Tim - Vocals, Guitars, Keyboards
Stevo - Drums, Backing Vocals
Dakk - Bass, Backing Vocals
Stu - Guitars, Backing Vocals
The Prophecy/A Rise To Power - I always ensure I listen to the albums opening tracks together. The Prophecy it builds slowly and melodically, with what I believe is a flute thrown into the mix. After two minutes the anticipation for Dungeons kickass Power Metal sound is incredible. A Rise To Power begins hard and fast, double kick pounding and a sweet riff. The vocals are good on this track, especially when backed, as are the 3 solos. Combined the two tracks make the longest song on the album.
Netherlife (Black Roses Die) - Man the opening riff here is good, nice and chunky. Straight into another little solo (get used to them, this album has a lot). Theres a sampled destruction/explosion sound eventually, which leads into a soft bridge which happens to fit perfectly. The solo following that has amazing tone. Great song.
Insanity's Fall - Instrumentally, this song is pretty sound. Actually, the entire thing is, but the vocals in the verse kind of irritate me sometimes. I think it's a mood thing, but to me they sound outdated or something sometimes. Not my favourite song, but not bad either.
The Other Side - After a sampled intro, a nice bassline begins. It's probably the most prominent piece the bass has on the album. After Insanity's Fall the vocals on this track so good to me. It's a little more slowly paced than the rest of the album, and it all fits together nicely. Top track.
Stormchaser - The flow between Stormchaser and the previous track is great. It's more upbeat, and also happens to be the shortest no filler track on the album. Pretty standard song really, but it's a good listen.
Where Madness Hides - Again another nice transition, with an intro that can best be described by m/. The verse however is different story, the guitar/bass disappears for a bit, really highlighting Tim's voice. Frankly I prefer it with everything playing, and it doesn't seem to fit right after the riff leading into it. Other than those 10 seconds or so, the song is really pretty decent.
Lost In The Light - This is one of my favourites on the album. It's has some brilliant moments throughout, but the second half is where it's at. Theres a segment where everything comes to kind of a halt, before a totally awesome bassline pops up and let's you know they aren't done yet. If you a Bassist this will be the standout track for you. From there the proceeds to go off. Nothing much else I can say.
Life Is Black - Let me get this out of the way, I am in love with this song. It's one of the most beautiful instrumentals I've ever heard. It opens with a very soothing, clean piece, with what sounds like some sort of foreign scales thrown in. Enter the solo. The tone on this baby is amazing. It's nothing technically brilliant, but it leaves me speechless. The best thing you can do here is listen to it.
The Birth: The Trauma Begins - Audio skit of a birth. Nothing too interesting, but the Aussie accents are rather apparent.
Traumatised - Here is where you'll find the harshest vocals on the album. The raspy screaming throughout the verses contrasts well with the cleanly sung segments. The song is otherwise a little repetative, but I can't complaing.
A Rise To Power (reprise) - The 'end' of the album. It's an instrumental depicting the chorus of the title track, and features one of those cool little Scottish snare's. I think they are snares anyway, I'm not a drummer so I can't be sure, but you'll know what I mean when you hear it. Nice relaxing way to go out.
Wasted Years* - The first to two bonus tracks. The Maiden influence is rather apparent in this song, both instumentally and vocally. Sounds 80's if you know what I mean. Pretty cool track.
Queen Of The Reich* - Cool song, with traditional style vocals, nice riffs, and what I believe is the most appealing Drum line on the album. They only improvement they could have made to this track would be to have it before A Rise To Power (reprise), because it isn't a great song to go out on, but it's definately worth having on the album.
Overall - This a pretty darn good Power Metal album. I've read somewhere before something along the lines of 'Dungeon won't win any awards for originality, but they do make incredibly listenable music'. Because I'm a n00b with Power Metal, I'm going to give it what I believe is a reasonable rating of 3.5 stars.
