Band:	Dol Ammad
Album:	Star Tales
Style:	Electronic symphonic metal
Release date:	2004
A review by:	Undercraft

01. Dreamport
02. Eclipse (Corona Of The Sun)
03. Weaver's Dance
04. Boxed Daylight Part 1
05. Boxed Daylight Part 2
06. The Veil (Seven Face Danger)
07. Back To The Zone
08. Master Of All
09. The Hill Of Hope
10. Kruug
11. Vortex 3003
12. Mission Butterfly

Is great when you review a Demo, and you predict great things for the band. Is also great when you see a band taking their first steps, and then you witness them on the road to greatness. This is the case with Greeks Dol Ammad. A couple of years ago I reviewed their Demo and I was impressed with the quality and originality of the music, now, and as I predicted, they're signed and with a debut album on their sleeve, entitled "Star Tales".

Dol Ammad music is quite strange, in case you missed them; they play a mix of symphonic Metal with a 12-piece choir with electronic music, the chances you've heard something like this are quite rare, to compare it as Therion with electronic elements would be quite erroneous, think it as a ambitious project from one man, Thanasis Lightbridge, the brains behind Dol Ammad.

Since their demo a lot of things have changed, line-up changes and new members, like Alex Holzwarth (from Rhapsody fame) is now handling the drum duties, also, the production of the Cd is top notch, each element and each sample is where it should be. The cover art that graces the Cd is excellent, I couldn't think of another cover art for the music Dol Ammad plays, so in presentation, this really deserves a 10.

To the music itself, the album starts with an electro-synth intro called "Dreamport" after 3 minutes the intro becomes the excellent opener "Eclipse (Corona Of The Sun)", a powerful track that is the best presentation card of Dol Ammad. Next is "Weaver's Dance" a mid paced yet aggressive song, the beeps and bleeps are always there giving texture to the music, the electronic influence that Dol Ammad uses is taken from Electronic genres such as Trance music and IDM (Intelligent Dance Music) or so it seems.

"Boxed Daylight" is a moody 2-part song, both tracks are easy listening and have great arrangements, "The Veil" is a mysterious song with a dark side to it, "Master Of All" is quite catchy, the whole composition is very "happy" if I can use the word, the electronic samples on this one are quite cool also, "The Hill Of Hope" is another song featured in their 2002 Demo, is so good to hear those songs revamped with real drums and good production, "Vortex 3003" is an aggressive song that relies in the keyboards like most of the songs. Closer track "Mission Butterfly" is a 10 minute composition that really shows us what these guys can accomplish!

My only complain of the album is the lack of new songs, I mean, 6 songs here are from the Demo, and we have 3 instrumentals/intro songs, that leaves us with only 3 new songs, but is ok, I understand that not everybody got the chance to hear their Demo, so is no big deal.
The bottom line, excellent album, of course better than the Demo, Dol Ammad has created a new way of making music, they saw what was lacking in the Metal scene: originality, and they injected that in their music, the result, an overdose of musical creativity.