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Jacob's Dream
Jacob's Dream
Metal Blade Records, 2000
REVIEW BY: Christopher Thelen
ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED: 01/27/2000
There are times that modern-day heavy metal confuses me.
Back when I was a teenager, it was easy to know in which genre aspecific group could be classified. Slayer was thrash metal, Venomwas death metal, Bon Jovi was... well, we won't get into thathere.
Nowadays, a group can cross over into so many different stylesin the course of one album that you almost need a road map tounderstand just where you are. This is the case with theself-titled release from Jacob's Dream. At times, they sound likewhat Queensryche used to be like; other times, they have themenacing leer of a death metal band. Still other times, I couldeasily pencil them in as a progressive metal band. It gets a bitconfusing - and in the end, that hurts this album.
It's not that the band - vocalist David Taylor,guitarist/keyboardist John Berry, guitarist Gary Holtzman, bassistJames Evans and drummer Rick May - are bad by any stretch of theimagination. The group has their chops down well, and Taylorreminds me a lot of both a young Geoff Tate and Helloween's AndiDeris. Musically, Jacob's Dream could hold their own with manybands in the progressive genre, with their intricate keyboard andguitar work that is hauntingly beautiful and powerful.
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