Avant-Garde style Progressive Metal outfit 3 DreAms neVer Dreamt hail from Milan, Italy and formed in 2007 as a result of the collaboration between Gianluigi Giradi providing vocal duties (Crown Of Autumn, Winter Mist, Event Horizon) and Andy Signorelli handling guitar duty and acting as co-composer. This collaboration resulted in the composition of highly expressive melancholic and melodic music with a sturdy progressive metal foundation and a lot of expressive avant-grade elements and gothic inspired undertones. 2021 sees the release of their second full-length, ‘Another Vivid Detail’ which is a concept album that revolves around the story of a man’s descent into insanity and his eventual demise. So, with this, let us listen to a tragedy unfold in musical form.

The first thing of note about this release is how heavily skewed towards the progressive metal side of the musical spectrum the musical compositions are geared to. With plenty of melodic lines and complex structural arrangements in the compositions, manifested as shifting rhythmic attacks and flowing leads, you get an overwhelming vibe of Symphony X and Porcupine Tree. Vocally, the expression and emotions which are laid out in the delivery shows a lot of similarities to late 80’s Queensrÿche. This rich and highly expressive vocal display helps engage the listener, drawing you into the story and allowing you to experience it in a deeper way. With this progressive vein so strongly rooted in the music, the hints of Gothic Metal and Avant-Garde add most of the musical flavourings. The dark and melancholic nature of the music, the sad and despairing underlying story in the lyrics and the atmospheric spread which seeps into you all help build on the solid musical foundation.

This can be heard throughout all the tracks on the release. Sporadic samples act as narrative elements which the vocals then expand on (Interconnections, The Ballad Of A., Save Me From Myself) to help drive the story on, backed up by subtle keyboards and deep melodic compositions. Opening track “Interconnections” is a heavy and intense offering which revolves around a solid set of arrangements and direction from the vocals and lead guitars, “The Black Dressed Clown” really taps into the Gothic Metal flair with a dark and oppressive atmosphere, making use of excellent switches between bright clean passages and thundering distortion, using momentum and dynamic shifts in pacing to hammer home the key points of the track and throughout these two opening tracks, the established compositions, arrangements and tricks are heard throughout the release in various forms.

The first real stand out moment of the album is “The Dance”. Starting off with a slow, shuffling rhythm section and haunting clean guitars, it slowly comes to life with its dark and sorrowful music acting as a good contrast to the warm and welcoming vocals. The male and female vocal sections switch several times throughout the track, both feeding off of each other and setting the other up to keep the momentum going and when this is combined with the progressive metal undercurrent musically, the dynamic shifts in tension and delivery; creeping leads which erupt into melodic solos and pounding rhythmic assaults, just makes everything on this track click. “The Antipodist” is another track of note. In contrast to the previously mentioned ‘The Dance’, ‘The Antipodist’ opens up brightly and has a more uplifting feel to it, again this is due (largely) to the vocals which again act as a contrast to the music. Descending progressive metal sequences shift into solos whilst captivating vocal lines and hypnotic rhythmic shifts keep you hooked and despite the descending feel of the music, the track remains bright sounding and more upbeat.

The leading single of the release which is also the penultimate track of the album, “Save Me From Myself” opens up with a sample which has some big similarities to the one which opens up the Queensrÿche classic ‘I Don’t Believe In Love’. That aside, in comparison to other tracks highlighted on this release, it isn’t as strong. Whilst it is a solid musical composition, it just lacks the gripping feel which is present in tracks earlier in the album’s running order. It does serve as a good example of what to expect from this band, but in comparison to “The Dance”, it is a pale imitation! The closing track is the titular one. “Another Vivid Detail” is probably the most complex track on the release, cramming elements of all the album into a single musical offering. Narrative spoken word vocals, electronica samples, shifting progressions, thundering rhythm deliveries and rich vocal and melodic lead sections all combine to make a sonically diverse musical entity which is basically a jack of all trades. It does the emotional and atmospheric thing well, it does the engaging leads well, it does the captivating rhythm well, but it does not excel in one area. It is a track which has had a great detail invested into its composition and it does serve as a fitting finale to a highly intriguing musical experience.

Overall, “Another Vivid Detail” is a solid progressive metal release which has some pretty solid Avant-Garde aspirations. The musical delivery is consistent, the level of proficiency in the composition and the execution is evident in how the arrangements all work together and vocally, it is phenomenal. It has some similarities with another Mediterranean progressive metal band I highly recommend; Mother Of Millions, but it is not quite on the level of the Greek Progressive Metal titans. Expressive, engaging, extremely detailed and one to watch for the future, 3 DreAms NeVer Dreamt have started 2021 off well!

(8/10 Fraggle)

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