Band:	Dreamtale
Album:	Difference
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	March 2005

01. Lost Souls
02. Wings Of Icaros
03. New Life
04. Lucid Times
05. The Mirror
06. World's Child
07. Sail Away
08. Fly
09. Secret Door
10. We Are One
11. Green Fields
12. Powerplay [Track bonus]

Difference is a very enjoyable album issued by a below-average band. Before this one, they've had some very usable ideas wrecked by low quality production, lack of balls in most tracks, and singers who didn't understand that their job includes actually hitting the notes. But this time all the pieces finally came together giving us a nice melodic power metal album to listen to.

The sound is very polished and there aren't problems with the volume; the backing vocals and occasional choirs are glued especially well to the rest. Lack of balls is still a big problem on this one, and my focus here is on lyrics - they're very cheesy and sometimes don't fit the melody naturally (the main problem with Dreamtale in my book). But this time, the guys have got backup - the melodies are more beautiful and flowing than ever, playing is thick and the steel pipes of Jarkko Ahola are doing a great favor to the album. It's true, every power metal band could be improved by adding a good vocalist into the picture, but rare bands have been fortunate to have a voice of such raw power, beautiful colour and extravagance.

The first half of the album is slightly stronger than the first one. The opener track is the meanest song on the album, providing those much needed balls I was ranting about. Then, after we skip a couple of radio-friendly and classic power metal rumble tracks with the purpose to make you feel pumped, is "Lucid Times," the track that sounds like it came out of the head of Tuomas Holopainen and, of course, one of the best power ballads of the past decade, "The Mirror," where Ahola's vocals shine in all his might. The second half has the same balance of fast power metal and slower songs, but has much weaker tracks. The ballads are gems - "Sail Away" is a tear-inducing acoustic track and there is my personal favorite, the very Slavic "Green Fields." But there are awkward ones too, especially "Secret Door," which would be a great track if it weren't for the very tongue-in-cheek lyrics (a friend of mine refers to it as the butt-love song, so, feel free to guess what it's about).

Unfortunately, this is their only album I can really enjoy; the departure of Ahola (who has since had tremendously good performances in Teräsbetoni and Northern Kings) has left them with a hole in their lineup, since the replacement singer wasn't that good. But, Difference is a great album, and I'd recommend it to all power metal fans, as well as some who don't regularly listen to that genre of music - give it a listen when you're in the mood for cheese, you won't regret it.