The Hall of the Olden Dreams

It took Dark Moor less than one year to go from a solid but very flawed debut album to one of the greatest in the history of the genre of power metal. Everything that was lacking on "Shadowland" is corrected on "The Hall of the Olden Dreams." Everything is better. The production is great. Everything is mixed together really well. The band's playing across the board has gotten worlds better. Martin's voice has gotten both more beautiful and more powerful too. The songwriting is catchier and more polished. There are close to no cliché and stock tracks. Every song is polished and feels very unique. Everything about Dark Moor has been kicked into high gear for this release, and it's so good that it'll make you forget the debut even existed. I make no exaggeration at all when I say that "The Hall of the Olden Dreams" is either in, or very close to the top 10 greatest power metal albums ever made.

"Maid of Orleans" is probably Dark Moor's most famous track of all time, and for good reason. Despite me saying it is their most famous, more people still need to know about it. The opening riff is absolute electricity. Garcia is flying. The following keyboard melody foreshadows the chorus and gets the song off to a really solid start. Martin's range and passion on the song are truly inspiring. She hits the mood so well, and she makes you believe in every note she hits. The chorus as well is so memorable, with a balance of catchiness and passionate energy. The solo is jaw-dropping on top of it all. What more could you want? The album also opens strong with "Somewhere in Dreams." Once again, Elisa's voice is what makes this song shine. Her notes have such a mystical feeling to them behind the rest of the band. The verses have a galloping feel, and the backing vocals are used to make the song feel bigger and grander at the perfect times. The chorus is another absolute ear-worm on top of it. "Somewhere in Dreams" is another absolutely masterfully crafted track. The fantasy mood is never hit more expertly than here.

"Bells of Notre Dame" has another explosive intro solo, and Martin is unleashing pure power in all of her vocals. The keyboard work behind the verses is also very creative and keeps the melody flowing. It's an example that not every song has to be perfect to be great. "Bells of Notre Dame" is one of the more simple songs on the record, but it hits hard enough, and has a solid enough chorus to not at all detract from the rest of the album. "Hand in Hand" features some of the most proficient neo-classical playing on the record from Garcia, and the keyboards are expertly enhancing the melody with orchestration behind them. It's some of the catchiest guitar work on the album, and the keys have their own moments to shine on the song as well. The ending of the track that fades into a piano part playing the main melody is very unique, and gives the song a special feeling to it.

My personal favorite track on the record is "Mortal Sin." It has a very different feeling to it in how it flows than the other songs on the record. It's just a bit darker, and the verse melodies have a harsher dueling feeling to them. In addition, the lead guitar work and backing vocals are perfectly executed to strengthen the feeling of the song. Martin really gets to tap into more of her darker and more aggressive range on this track, which isn't quite as common on this record. Add in a catchy, yet still slightly darker chorus, and it's a real standout. It's far from your typical power metal experience. "Beyond the Fire" is also an incredibly underrated track. The opening keyboard has a really medieval feel to it that isn't done very much. Martin is by FAR the biggest star on the track, though. She gives a sad and yet beautiful emotion on all of the verses and pre-chorus that makes her shine. She hits higher notes at the perfect times, and dials them back to show emotion in an impressive vocal balancing act. You feel every word she sings on "Beyond the Fire."

The one really weak track that weighs "The Hall of the Olden Dreams" down quite heavily is "Quest for the Eternal Flame." It's criminally boring, and very standard on top of it. Garcia's riff work on this song is unacceptable. His solos are solid, but he has had better on this album. Martin is doing her best to support the song, but she can only do so much with so little behind her to back her up. The verses just ramble on and never come to a good stopping point. It sounds more like they needed to get exposition out without a good flow to the verse. Even the keyboards sound very repetitive, and some of the melodies are all too close to other songs on the record. Finally, the chorus is an utter dud. It sounds absolutely bored with itself. The entire band sounds uninspired and unsure of themselves singing it. There are worse power metal tracks in general than "Quest for the Eternal Flame," but it really hurts the album in my opinion to have a song THIS mediocre when the rest of it is so good.

"The Hall of the Olden Dreams" is such an essential record for anyone that is remotely interested in power metal to own. Dark Moor really laid it all out on this record. It's like a switch was flipped in the entire band between their debut and this. And what is almost even more insane is that, even though I said before that this album was or was close to a top 10 power metal record...what was to come next would be even BETTER. "The Hall of the Olden Dreams" left "Shadowland" in the dust when it was released, and as absolutely AMAZING as this record still is, what comes next is unfairly good. If you've never heard this album or the following Dark Moor album before, prepare to have your jaw hit the floor upon doing so.

This album is one of the most beautiful albums I have ever heard. I do not simply just listen to one song off of it when listening. I think the E-flat tuning is a major factor in this. Songs like "Somewhere In Dreams", "Maid Of Orleans", "Bells Of Notre Dame", "Silver Lake", "The Sound Of The Blade", and "Hand In Hand" will take the listener to a fantastical realm of awe with their divine sounding choruses, ripping guitar solos, and riffs that will forever stay in your head. (No useless poetic stuff intended there.) I felt like the rhythm guitar part was a little too quiet though. It just sounded a bit... empty. I think Dark Moor could have brought out the rhythm guitar more, but the lead guitar part in this album is spot-on.

By far, my favorite thing about the vocals of this album is the verse to "Bells Of Notre Dame". The choice of notes for the verses is a perfect melody to convey Quasimodo's inner conflict. Thinking about the rhythm put to the notes of the first verse, it kinda sounds... bluesy. A little bit. The rhythm to the first half of the verse is swing 8th notes, then every measure of the verse ends with a half note might I just note.

I took a look at some of Enrik Garcia's (guitarist) inspirations from the thanks section in the booklet that came with the CD. These included: Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Kai Hansen (Helloween/Gamma Ray), Michael Romeo (Symphony X), Alexi Laiho (Children of Bodom), W.A. Mozart, J.S. Bach, A. Vivaldi, P.L. Tschaikovsky, Angra, Rhapsody, and J.R.R. Tolkein, H.P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allen Poe. All of these influences are present in this album.

In closing, "The Hall Of The Olden Dreams" is a huge step-up from Dark Moor's debut album, "Shadowland". One of the most captivating albums I've ever heard. Definitely on my essential power metal albums list.

I heard about Dark Moor through a good friend of mine who lives in California, I never really payed heed to them or anything, when I saw the cover art for this album I shook it off as an attempted Blind Guardian rip off. After having received a song from said buddy and putting my play list on my media player on shuffle and hearing "Somewhere in Dreams" I fell in love right away. After searching my usual record shops for anything from them my luck turned when the smallest one had a copy of this album (small is sometimes a good thing).

When I first popped it into my CD player in my vehicle and heard ''The Ceremony" right away my mind when to Rhapsody, but way better. Rarely do I find albums that strike a perfect balance of instruments and this is one of those the keyboards are the perfect volume, the guitars are nice and audible, and best of all the vocals. I didn't know until I got home the vocalist was a woman. She sounds like Fabio Leone with something else there I cant really say, best to say she's not like the usual typical female metal vocalist, all operatic and gothy, no this woman is metal straight up!

Every track on here is amazing striking the perfect mix of classical and metal with well written fantasy lyrics that I've not heard in awhile, also the backing choruses make it FAR more than your average power metal album, only Blind Guardian top these. The best track on here being "Somewhere in Dreams" for me, I can listen to it all day and not get bored. This is a wholehearted recommendation to pick this up for whatever price. Quite possibly the biggest complaint I find for the album though is the solo's seem to short, but there's still enough melody and interludes where it should not dissuade you.

Dark Moor were a very good band at the recording of "Shadowland". However, they have increased their production quality and brought out more of their classical flair with "The Hall Of The Olden Dreams".

The good thing about higher recording budgets is that the neo-classical guitar solos are a lot easier to hear, and they sound about one hundred times better. With "Shadowland" the guitars sounded sort of distant, but that problem is gone now. You hear this improvement the most with the fifth track, "Silver Lake", which features speedy riffing and a solo that is a highlight in Dark Moor's career.

A drawback to this album was the fact that the songs were much less different from one another. With their previous piece the songs definitely had more variety. I am not saying their is no variety here, however, but most of the songs sound alike, with the exceptions of "Beyond The Fire" and Sound Of The Blade". Unvarying songs is not usually a bad thing, especially with a band with such good style, but I became just slightly bored around track six.

The only other gripe I have about the CD is how Dark Moor have found themselves a certain annoying trademark. This is the fact that their works start out with shitty instrumentals, which have no purpose whatsoever, except to fill a gap. This "tradition" will be continued later as well, with their later albums. The people who buy these CDs are into METAL, not little classical interludes, for Christ's sake.

Anyone who enjoyed Shadowland, I would strongly recommend picking up this CD. Dark Moor is quite an interesting band to follow, and this is a landmark in their career.

Dark moor plays melodic power metal. The band does not reinvent this genre, but still does extraorinarily well by showing a feeling for beautiful and catchy melodies.
All songs come with powerful choruses which are sung by the whole band, who are backing the lead singer. The main vocalist shows a gorgeous performance and is one of the few female singers who have to be taken seriously. She does not sound like a gothic-metal-"fallen angel" with overly exaggerated soft melody lines. There is power and expression in her voice, without singing harshly in a Janis Joplin-like style. One can clearly tell her from a male - and her voice perfectly fits the music.
Eight songs on the record are metal tunes, sometimes with classical inspirations (but clearly not as intensely as in Rhapsody's compositions for example - so "metal" dominates the songs). One song is a ballad, which is one of the saddest songs I have ever heard. Depressive people should listen to it with caution, for it may easily break one's heart. All in all, there are nine tunes (plus a nice instrumental intro, making a total of 10 tracks).
There are no fillers on this album, but the first 5 songs are easier to get into.
Lyrically the album covers mostly fantasy themes, but also contains some historical issues ("Maid of Orleans", for example.) The lyrics are well-written, with lots of emotion and passion, avoiding stereotypical fantasy-cliches.

So this album is definitely woth a listen in your local record-store.

Best songs on the album (of course personal opinion):

- Somewhere in Dreams
- Silver Lake
- Maid of Orleans
- The sound of the blade