BLACK SUNDAY DREAM: "Light Of The Night"

Rating: 5/10

Label: TSM/SLW 2011

Review by: Urban "Wally" Wallstrom

"People Get Ready" - The opening number is coming at ya' at full swing with singing guitarwork and monster riffing. The attiude and energy of the band is certainly present throughout the album and it's all about loud guitars and fast cars. It's supposed to be the full force of seventies guitar rock (Montrose, Van Halen) verses the cocky strutt of David Michael-Phillips' (King Kobra) acts such as Big Cock and Tunnel and merely a hint of metal in the vein of Bruce Dickinson (his solo albums).

To really make a stand and point as to what they are all about, Black Sunday Dream decided to record a rather intense version of "Rockin' In A Free World" (Neil Young). No doubt, this red white and blue American band like their guitars loud, that much is obvious. The power chords are flying across the room and the soaring vocals by Donald Hillier is an equivocal experience. Always borderline 'over-the-top' and screaming in your face, like a poor man's version of Bruce Dickinson. I don't mean poor as in crap, nope, merely not quite as good as Bruce-Bruce, but than again, who is??? A v-e-r-y capable vocalist nontheless and definitely 'power-house' work in the old metal tradition.

In fairness, the band have added a slightly different slant to the already much copied 'Montrose' sound (the band Van Halen copied right down to their shoe-laces) by injecting the odd metal singing and material in the vein of Bruce Dickinson (his solo albums). Brian George's guitarwork ignite like fireworks around me and the solid bassplayer Terrence Allen - a Bay Arena rock veteran since the year of 1969. Yep, Black Sunday Dream are very capable rockers, yet they have a fair amount to go before we're talkin' in terms such as sensational and superb. The songs are never really the 'catchy' sing-a-long numbers you'd expect them to be. The choruses are missing somehow? Final Verdict: fancy a 50/50 mix of Montrose and Bruce Dickinson without any real hits? The best track?, Young's Rockin' In A Free World. Have a go at soundclips below (links).

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