super sweden project with cool guests!

Some Kind of Poetic Destruction (2013) is the fourth album by Portuguese/Swedish progressive metal act Factory of Dreams. The album is a conceptual science fiction work following the story of Kyra, a “unique and mysterious character who holds the key to our fate”. Kyra, along with two other characters in the story, known only as Kyra’s boyfriend and the child, are each represented by a different narrator, while a couple of guest female vocalists, Raquel Schüler (Hydria) and Magali Luyten (Beautiful Sin, Epysode) put in appearances alongside the Factory of Dreams duo of Jessica Lehto (vocals) and Hugo Flores (music, vocals). A few guest soloists also appear on various instruments, including some violin solos by Lyris Hung (Hung).

Melotronical (2011), the previous Factory of Dreams album, quickly became a personal favourite of mine from its year. I’d enjoyed the previous work of Factory of Dreams as well as that of Hugo Flores other projects, particularly the earlier Sonic Pulsar project (a song from which is featured on Some Kind of Poetic Destruction in an updated form), but Melotronical was the album that Factory of Dreams really hit their stride for me. Their debut album Poles (2008), was good, while A Strange Utopia (2009) upped their game a fair bit but nothing compared to the masterpiece that was Melotronical. An important thing to note about the evolution of Factory of Dreams however was that although each work, including Some Kind of Poetic Destruction, was recognisable as their sound, they’d never made the same album twice and that’s especially true of Some Kind of Poetic Destruction.

Originally Jessica Lehto was the sole lead vocalist of the band, but on Melotronical Hugo Flores also sang a lot of lead, and the two could be considered co-lead vocalists in most of the album’s songs. Here Hugo has taken a back seat again, although you can still hear his vocals a lot more than you could pre-Melotronical. I’m unsure if his sudden increased role on Melotronical was due to a conceptual thing that apparently wasn’t needed on Some Kind of Poetic Destruction, but I must admit his withdrawal was one of the biggest surprises about the album. I mean that in a positive light though, Hugo’s a great singer but it’s never bad to have a band that can surprise you. There are generally not enough artists who can do that these days. And of course it’s not an issue to listen to Jessica sing the majority of the album. Ahe’s an absolutely stunning singer. The two guest vocalists also do a good job, with Raquel Schüler doing a duet with Jessica on Angel Tears and Magali Luyten actually sings her song, Dark Season, on her own, another surprise about the release.

In terms of the music side of things the sound Factory of Dreams have gone for seems a little less direct than Melotronical, with a strong focus on synth and piano sounds to build up an atmosphere which cat different times can be described as being eerie, spacey, or dramatic. The metal elements are still of course here but seem welded into the overall sound rather than controlling it. It’s like the best bits of all three previous Factory of Dreams albums rolled into one. It has electronic elements, mechanical sounding riffs (which scream sci-fi at me), powerful vocals, violin soloing, pianos and synths galore, some really dramatic sounding symphonic elements and progressive structure. The quality of the writing is also superb once again, with contenders as albums highlights honestly covering most of the album, but I have to give a special nod to the epic Seashore Dreams. This is one of the best songs Factory of Dreams has ever done.

I don’t personally find the results of the album to quite match up to Melotronical overall but Some Kind of Poetic Destruction is a more than satisfactory way to follow-up a top tier album such as that one, and for me it’s easily their second strongest release to date. An exceptional grade rating is deserved.

01 Prelude 02:46
02 Strange Sounds 04:19
03 Escaping the Nightmare 04:27
04 Angel Tears 05:16
05 Seashore Dreams 06:46
06 Dark Season 05:01
07 Sound War 05:46
08 Hope Garden 05:57
09 Traveling 05:14
10 The Neutron Star 05:58
11 Join Us into Sound 05:41
12 Playing the Universe 07:03
13 Seashore Dreams (Video Version) 04:25

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