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.