Band:	The Hourglass
Album:	Resurrection Of The Horrid Dream
Style:	Heavy metal
Release date:	April 21, 2007
A review by:	Baz Anderson

01. Resurrection
02. Selective Memory
03. Suicidal Form
04. The Book
05. Distortion Of Thought
06. Ancient Hope: Part 2 - Kin Traitor
07. East Of The Mediterranean
08. Divine Judgment
09. Alone Again
10. The Horrid Dream

Three years on from the bands first full-length we have this Syrian heavy metal band's second full-length album. Again, just as the last album was, this album is nicely presented with large and very elaborate booklet but also this time The Hourglass have stepped into the world of colour making the album look much more modern and appealing to reach out and pick up.

This album like the last has a two-minute introduction track that builds up and nicely introduces the first song on the album "Selective Memory" that has a bit more bite to the first song on the last album. Also with the nice introduction of keyboards being used this song shows how the band have grown in the years, as most of the album does as it progresses. The double bass drums are used well as they are in the next track "Suicidal Form" as well along with good guitar and pleasant guitar solo. As the album goes on, the track "East Of The Mediterranean" jumps out at you like a lion (or something big and jumpy) - this track is really great, the band turn themselves almost into a thrash metal band with thundering drums and aggressive guitar and vocals as well as the soaring guitar solos, the track has plenty of punch to it. Also the next track "Divine Judgement" is a really cool track to listen to, nice guitar and drums once more.

With this album you can clearly see how the band have progressed and grown since the release of their first album "To The Land Of The Free" in 2004. The songs show more talent from the musicians, guitar and drums especially and also on average the songs are more entertaining and attractive to listen to.
Production again is good; you can clearly hear everything you want to hear on this album. It still might not be as clean as some other albums but they have still done another good job with production.

This album may drift off a little bit in the middle with its over eight minute track "Ancient Hope (Part Two)" that links it with the first part on the first album. It just doesn't keep my attention pinned to the album like ideally it should; it just fails to capture my imagination. Maybe if there was a little more variation in the songs they would be more successful at keeping the listeners attention. This album is more varied then their first offering though, so as with this album hopefully the next album will show even more improvement and variation from the ever growing musicians in this band.

As I have just stated the band have grown since their first album and will hopefully continue to do so. This album is another good, solid album from these Syrian flag holders of heavy metal and so should hopefully, with an ever-expanding fan base, be able to soon make their mark on the world of metal.