Once Upon A Dream - Cruciamentum

Once Upon A Dream is a five-piece metalcore band with members from Greece and Germany. Alcyone Records released their debut EP "Cruciamentum". The cover artwork is a very beautiful and emotional piece of art with great colors and reflects in the most appropriate way the content of the EP.

The band's sound is based on mid tempo metalcore grooves with the addition of awesome guitar licks and beat down parts. The double bass is thick enough to match well with the low tuned guitars and the vocals/grunts.

Although the basic influences for Once Upon A Dream are bands like Parkway Drive, Bullet For My Valentine, Asking Alexandra, Suicide Silence, A Day To Remember and White Chapel, in their songs you will discover bits and elements from the Swedish Melodic Death Metal scene and bands like In Flames and Soilwork, particularly of their newest releases. Another influence for Once Upon A dream is Djent and of course bands like Periphery, Meshuggah and Tesseract.

From the opening chords of 'Seeker' the band shows an emotional face with sweet and harmonious melodies torn by the brutal vocals which vary from high screams to low-end gurgles at the beat down passages. The riffs are powerful with a tasty vibe and they are beautifully structured over the rhythm section.

There has been a very nice job done in the production of the EP. It leaves the clear vocals in songs like 'Behind The Shadows' to be perfectly heard. It also creates space for the band's technical skills, especially in the guitar riffs and leads, to appear. 'Behind The Shadows' has a great groove and it should make a live favorite. The great melodic synth work lifts the song up in terms of songwriting and at the same time it offers a melancholic aura.

After the first half of the song, 'Hollow Eyes' reveals some real Meshuggah influences in the way the riff beats down to end the song with a clear chords progression.

'Deathwish' starts with a fantastic and colorful guitar theme over a doom/sludge background riff. Despite the electronics used, the main groove here reminds of Pantera from the "Far Beyond Driven" period.

'My Last Words' has a technical riff that made me think Death of the after "Human" period can be an influence here and underlined how much ahead of their time Death were. The hardcore elements of the song give place to metalcore vocals and back in a very interesting game of heaviness and technique.

All in all "Cruciamentum" is a very enjoyable EP. It will surely leave all metalcore fans satisfied and make them anxious for the band's next step. Melodic death metal and progressive metal fans will also find something really nice here. Promising!

4 / 5 STARSĀ 

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1. Seeker
2. Behind The Shadows
3. Hollow Eyes
4. Deathwish
5. My Last Words