Spellbound Dazzle - Unreal FairyTales review
| Band: | Spellbound Dazzle |
| Album: | Unreal FairyTales |
| Style: | Rock |
| Release date: | January 28, 2011 |
| A review by: | Doc G. |
01. Intro
02. Goodbye My Love
03. The Foolin' Of Each Other
04. SBD
05. So Close
06. Monster
07. In My Room
08. Rullo
09. Spaceman
10. W.I.T.M. (When I Touch Myself)
11. Ruska
12. Outro
Spellbound Dazzle? Really? Are we actually that short on unused band names now? Fair enough, the name actually makes sense in context with the music. It's clearly a band with a sense of humour. No, we're not talking about humorous music with abysmal results (ie Nanowar or Steel Panther). These guys manage to make extremely entertaining music, while still retaining the chops to be taken as a serious musical entity. Think Mr. Bungle meets Protest The Hero.
Eclectic. That's the word to describe this album. To pin this band down to one style is nigh impossible. Unreal Fairy Tales reaches out between AC/DC influenced blues rock, then jumps over to some of those cool, jazzy moments you come to expect from Protest The Hero, then bounces between some thrash, power, metalcore and traditional heavy metal. Oh yes, and some Spanish acoustic bits here and there. Oh yeah, and some polka or something...and barber shop quartet vocal bits. You know what?! Fuck it! If you can think of any type of melodic metal, chances are it's in here.
The beautiful part? They manage to tie everything together smoothly, without having to resort to silly prog-wankery to make the pieces fit. Unreal Fairy Tales is astonishingly clever - too frequently these spastic eclectic bands seem to lack the skill to bring their scattered ideas into a coherent flowing song, then it just becomes a bit too overwhelming. Spellbound Dazzle (yes, I'm still having a difficult time saying that out loud) just make everything work.
Ignore the atrocious name for 5 minutes and give this a listen. If you're into any type of melodic metal or hard rock, there will be something appealing in this album, if not the whole thing.
Comments
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Comments: 36
Visited by: 434 users
| Fat & Sassy! Elite Posts: 3857  |
THIS REVIEW EXCITES ME. Sounds right up my alley and then some. :O
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| Susan Smeghead Elite Posts: 6941  |
Mr. Godin thank you very much for recommending this album. I'm listening now and I must say your review is about as good a description as will probably ever be written. Especially this sentence, "They manage to tie everything together smoothly, without having to resort to silly prog-wankery to make the pieces fit." It's fun without being a joke. Excellent pick 
---- "A life all mine Is what I choose At the end of my days" --The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
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| Susan Smeghead Elite Posts: 6941 |
Another thing: you're 100% right that the list of bands this music brings to mind is endless... but I still must say I can't but hear some beats that Gogol Bordello fans would find very pleasing.
---- "A life all mine Is what I choose At the end of my days" --The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
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| bloodwrage Pagan Angel Posts: 445 |
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| veeja Posts: 10 |
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| Doc G. Full Grown Hoser Staff Posts: 9718  |
Written by Susan on 29.06.2011 at 04:42 Yes, I definitely hear some Gogol Bordello similarities there as well, except I find the variation here makes it a lot easier to swallow. I like Gogol Bordello, but I can barely listen to an entire album before it gets to be a little much.
---- "I got a lot of really good ideas, problem is, most of them suck." - George Carlin
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| BloodTears ANA-thema Elite Posts: 11835  |
I'm on it.
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702  |
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| Zealot644 Posts: 157  |
Honestly, do not want. This sounds barely metal, boring as hell, and reminds me of a typical Avenged Sevenfold song (Also along the lines of barely metal and boring) so I can definitely say I feel this was given a score way too high. I actually cringe trying to imagine somebody getting pumped over this music...I heard nothing spectacular. The music doesnt flow, vocals are pretty bad, and the drums are just the same beat for a couple of minutes. I say this would have been better of a 4 or 5 out of 10. Maybe 6 if you're feeling generous.
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| Fat & Sassy! Elite Posts: 3857 |
Written by Zealot644 on 29.06.2011 at 18:55 lulz. How cute. Too bad this band clearly has more talent and creativity in their little baby pinkies than A7X has in their whole generic, tasteless bodies.
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| Edmund Fogg Posts: 1752  |
Your review makes it really interesting, and that's why I'm kinda confused. I listened to The foolin Of Each Other and it gets interesting only at around 3mins. The rest sounds just like any other pop rock band poluting our radios. I'd like to hear more from them, but so far my hopes arn't really high.
---- You cannot sedate all the things you hate - MM The Observer is the source of reality - Bloom God damn it!! What did Diddy didn't do? - Satan
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| Fat & Sassy! Elite Posts: 3857 |
I think some people are missing the point. This album is fairly accessible rock/metal music with underlying, less in-your-face avantgarde elements in it. Much like other bands that take this approach with experimental music (Faith No More, Primus), they don't come off as pretentious because the music is, at its heart, relatively "safe". What I personally really like about this approach to song writing is that, when you listen closely, you'll find tons of clever creativity sprinkled throughout the music. It makes the music familiar, yet incredibly unique. In my opinion, when this stuff is done right, it becomes nothing short of brilliant. 
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| Milena gloom cookie Staff Posts: 4603  |
Sounds like something good 
---- 7.0 means the album is good
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| Asunder Posts: 60 |
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| bloodwrage Pagan Angel Posts: 445 |
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| WorpeX Made of Metal Posts: 1352  |
Written by Edmund Fogg on 29.06.2011 at 20:41 Yeah, I got really excited after reading the review, especially the last paragraph and went to their website to give it 'my five minutes'. Watched the video on their homepage and yeah, this isn't for me. Just not my cup of tea. Perhaps it was just this particular song, but i've lost all motivation to try and listen to any others now. x.x
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| Pyramid God Posts: 184  |
I listened to The Foolin' Of Each Other and I wasn't impressed. It was very unfocused and not in a good way. The musicianship was mediocre in my opinion but hey, to each his own.
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| Fat & Sassy! Elite Posts: 3857 |
Written by bloodwrage on 30.06.2011 at 06:31 Fair enough. I just think that the review was a little a little misleading for some people.
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| Death_95 Posts: 201  |
Written by Pyramid God on 30.06.2011 at 07:05 Me too, but I still want to listen to the rest of the album... I trust Doc.
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| Susan Smeghead Elite Posts: 6941 |
^ Really? I don't think the review was misleading. I mean... what were you guys expecting, a band that just drastically changed gears every 4.5 seconds? The point of the review seemed to be how many elements they incorporated while making them all work so smoothly together. That means continuity is the key. It is "Eclectic" like he says and, "If you can think of any type of melodic metal, chances are it's in here." Yup. Pretty much dead on!
---- "A life all mine Is what I choose At the end of my days" --The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
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| Fat & Sassy! Elite Posts: 3857 |
Written by Susan on 30.06.2011 at 17:22 Neither do I. I was just making this assumption based off people being "surprised" that the music was something other than they expected. That's all. ;P
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| Susan Smeghead Elite Posts: 6941 |
Cool
---- "A life all mine Is what I choose At the end of my days" --The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
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| Edmund Fogg Posts: 1752 |
Written by Susan on 30.06.2011 at 17:22 They are many ways to make smooth transitions even in more cahotic avantguarde approach. In the case of Spellbound Dazzle, I feel like they took the easy route by coating their talents and expertise with a boring sound.
---- You cannot sedate all the things you hate - MM The Observer is the source of reality - Bloom God damn it!! What did Diddy didn't do? - Satan
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| Winterthrone Posts: 289  |
Wow! This is awesome...It's like Faith No More meets Ac/Dc meets A7X meets Dream Theater...Very interesting sound IMO
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| Merchant of Doom Posts: 702 |
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| Both Bears Posts: 111  |
To me it sounds like a mixture of SOAD+AC/DC+some metalcore stuff + some other pop rock stuff .. fun at times, but 9.8? ))
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| grogboy Posts: 2 |
Written by Both Bears on 02.07.2011 at 18:35 I agree... The harmonies sound like Ra on Foolin' each of other... Also a bit like The Wildhearts... Still certainly not the worst or most derivative stuff around... Not the greatest but sounds all right to me...
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| dragonfire1603 Posts: 22  |
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| anarchist_36 Posts: 10 |
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| trenticle Posts: 6  |
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