Into Eternity's
Dead or Dreaming is loaded with great musical moments sure to please fans of death metal and progressive rock alike. One of the band's great strengths is the variety of vocal styles they employ ("clean" and "death" vocals, as the liner notes indicate), thanks to the fact that all four of the members sing in some way or another. Aside from the unpredictable time changes and hair-raising guitar solos that pepper the album, there is also a genuinely melodic sensibility that anchors the material; tunes like "Shallow" and "Unholy" offer more than just a dizzying array of the band's chops -- they are also real songs, which will make them appealing to more than just musicians. While the juxtaposition of pristine prog metal musicianship against death metal aggression is occasionally jarring and slightly incongruous,
Into Eternity generally makes it work by fusing the two approaches into something different altogether. ~ Andy Hinds