FB1964 - 2020 - Dreams & Nightmares

(62:38; Guma Records)

Track list:
1. Mile to Mile 6:14
2. Blood-Red Sky 6:15
3. Chaos 5:25
4. Falling Deep 4:27
5. Dreams and Nightmares 3:25
6. Fever 5:05
7. Seven Deadly Dreams 7:54
8. Guilty Conscience 4:14
9. Army of Darkness 6:45
10. Mechanics 4:24
11. Evil Awaits 4:43
12. Coming Home 3:47

Line-up:
Frank Badenhop - guitars
Mirko Gätje - bass
Michael Wolpers - drums
Becky Garber - vocals
Dethy Borchardt - guitars
with:
Ally Storch - violin
Tim Owens - vocals
Anneke van Giersbergen - vocals
Bobby Ellsworth - vocals
Henning Basse - vocals
Liv Jagrell - vocals
Johnny Gioeli - vocals
Ronnie Romero - vocals
Lea Dieckmann - vocals
David DeFeis - vocals
Chris Boltendahl - vocals
Brian Maillard - guitars
Juliana Wilson - guitars
Yiannis Papadopopoulos - guitars
Jeff Loomis - guitars
Julia Kosterova - guitars
Sophie Lloyd - guitars
Charlie Parra - guitars
Thomas Witt - guitars
Alex Häbell - guitars
Iago Pedrosos - guitars
Ugur Dariveren - guitars
Dr. Viossy - guitars
Andres Nunez - guitars
Giulia Marta Vallar - guitars
Tamas Petro - guitars
Eric Wirsing - guitars
Eric Scheufele - guitars
Ivan Mihaljevic - guitars
Juan M. Varona - guitars


German project band FB1964 is the creative vehicle of composer and musician Frank Badenhop, and for a decade and a bit he has released a steady stream of project albums where he has invited a great number of collaborators to participate on albums exploring different varieties of heavy metal. "Dreams & Nightmares" is the fifth album to be released under the FB1964 moniker, and dates back to 2020.

I have a great deal of good will towards this venture of Badenhop, as the income of these productions goes to benefit a good cause. In this case the preservation of the world's rain forests. But while I admire the cause and the enthusiasm behind the project, the 2020 edition of this venture is perhaps among the weaker ones as seen from a musical and creative perspective.

The material here alternates between traditional heavy metal and power metal, and both forms are by and large explored in a more basic and primal manner. The arrangements tend to be sparse, the guitars big, the drums even bigger, and the sometime choice of using rough sounding vocalists with lots of power and not all that much melody and finesse in this setting doesn't always work. While some of these details obviously will be a matter of subjective taste, some of those more distinct features will be regarded as divisive elements and will limit the overall appeal of this album.

In general my impression is that many of the compositions on this occasion are just a bit underdeveloped, the mix and production doesn't always manage to emphasize the strong attributes of a song, and the right personnel isn't always used and then to the detrimental effect this has on the song in question.

Thankfully there are quite a few songs here where the details have been assembled in a bit more of a likeable manner too, and while not making a great impact there's at least quite a few pleasant excursions into the realms of traditional heavy metal and power metal to enjoy here. And on one occasion Badenhop and his collaborators manage to get it right in a slightly better manner too, at least in my view, and that one instance of music that shines a bit brighter than the rest on this album is called 'Army of Darkness'. The inclusion of a more ongoing harmony overlay makes the whole song a lot more interesting straight away, and on this occasion the vocal roles have been done right too, which does elevate the overall experience.

"Dreams & Nightmares" comes across for me as an album that includes perhaps a few more mishaps than impressive creations overall. The ideals behind this production are admirable though, and if you want to support a good cause and are willing to spend the time to listen to a production with an uneven quality on a few different levels there are certainly worse ways to spend your money than. As taste is subjective I do believe there's an audience out there that will appreciate what this album has to offer to a greater degree than what I do of course. Those with a general taste for a more basic variety of traditional heavy metal and power metal, that tend to enjoy the use of power rather than finesse as a defining feature, strikes me as just about the perfect audience for this album.

Olav M. Björnsen, January 2023

Links:
https://fb1964.bandcamp.com/