A Dream Of Poe - An Infinity Emerged (CD)

Review
Soundzone Magazine

Três anos após o início das suas gravações, o segundo álbum do projecto de doom metal A DREAM OF POE está oficialmente concluído. A garantia é dada pelo mentor do grupo, Miguel Santos, que revela ainda que o master do disco já seguiu para a russa Solitude Prod que estará encarregue do lançamento físico.

"Muito horas foram despendidas na gravação deste álbum e só posso agradecer aos músicos que apaixonadamente partilharam comigo este processo", confessou o multi-instrumentista de origem açoriana.

O sucessor de «The Mirror Of Deliverance» (2011) marca uma fase de profunda restruturação no seio do grupo, depois da partida de Miguel Santos para a Escócia, operando-se assim as entradas de Kaivan Saraei [voz, IN ABSENCE], James Skirving [guitarra], Joe Turner [baixo, IN ABSENCE] e Euan McPherson [bateria]. No entanto, as baterias foram gravadas nos Açores, em 2012, pelo anterior baterista de sessão, João Oliveira, e as letras continuam a ter assinatura de Paulo Pacheco.

Em Dezembro último, Miguel Santos esclareceu o atraso na edição de «An Infinity Emerged»: "Tive de pensar muito com a cabeça e deixar o coração de lado. Não é fácil ao fim de sete anos a trabalhar praticamente sempre com as mesmas pessoas, e principalmente depois de termos feito uma tour juntos, decidir que, devido à minha situação pessoal, o que faria mais sentido seria começar do zero com músicos locais. Arranjar vocalista aqui em Edimburgo até nem foi muito difícil. Através de um promotor local que me apresentou a banda IN ABSENCE conheci o Kaivan. Aliás, ele teve um papel fundamental na procura de músicos - o Joe Turner, também elemento dos IN ABSENCE, e o James Skirving foram ambas sugestões dele por partilharem não só gostos musicais mas também uma amizade com vários anos. Com o regresso do João Oliveira a São Miguel tive de iniciar a busca por um baterista. A procura iniciou-se em finais de Julho e só agora, através de sugestão do Joe Turner, consegui finalmente encontrar um baterista."


«An Infinity Emerged» conta com participações especiais de Kostas Panagiotou [PANTHEIST], Lawrence Meyer [OFFICIUM TRISTE] e Nelson Félix [SANCTUS NOSFERATU, SPANK LORD].

Review
Wonderbox Metal
13.12.2015

A Dream of Poe are from Portugal and play Doom Metal. This is their second album.

This is Traditional Doom Metal that’s rich of texture and hue, laced with a subtle Gothic influence and plenty of majestic melodies; think My Dying Bride-esque.

The singer has a charismatic voice with just the right amount of drama added to the performance. He adds a lot of colour and flavour to the tracks and acts as a focal point for the misery-drenched music.

The songs are long, drawn-out explorations of beauty and tragedy, coming across as chapters in an epic tale of loss and woe.

Subtle keyboards underscore the emotive themes while the guitars provide a bedrock for the evocative atmospheres to attach themselves to. The songs are slow, moody and full of dark feelings.

Each track takes its time to get where it’s going and there’s no impetus to make things hurry along; this is a very good thing as the relaxing pace of the music is quite hypnotic and it’s easy to just switch off and absorb this album.

This is 56 minutes of quality Metal. Highly recommended.

Review
Merchants of Air
31.1.2015

Although I don't often use popular terms like 'throwback Thursday', this would be a perfect occasion for such a tag. At this very moment I'm being drenched in a melancholic atmosphere, bringing back some beautiful moments of festivals in the nineties. The line-up mentions bands like Paradise Lost, My Dying Bride and Anathema, and for that I think I'm in heaven. Gothic doom metal has been one of my favorite genres for years and I definitely approve of this one.

A Dream Of Poe is originally a Portuguese project but moved to Scotland. A few months ago, they released their second album, a very ambitious one too. The purpose was to recreate the magic of the classics by the previously mentioned bands. The fact the Solitude Productions picked them up, certainly proves that A Dream Of Poe succeeded in that goal. The five songs on 'Infinity Emerged' are massive pieces of gothic doom, truly reminiscent of that awesome nineties era.

From the very first note of opener 'Egregore', My Dying Bride and Anathema come to mind. The big problem with such a sound is the risk of sounding like a copycat, but the distinct clean vocals give this band their own edge and certainly their own piece of the gothic doom cake. The main difference between A Dream Of Poe and their predecessors is the mixing and sound of these vocals. Moved more to the foreground and with an intense melancholic feel, perhaps a tiny bit too poppy. The voice might take some getting used to but that never harms the overall quality.

In fact, by the end of 'Lethargus', I'm already singing 'show me something new', not because I heard all of this before but because it's one of the lyrics. Funny thing is, this is nothing new but they can definitely show me more of this. They do, in the massive song 'The Isle Of Cinder'. This is a black and purple steamroller of a song, taking on a bit of a theatrical approach, a bit cabarettesque perhaps but so damn immersive.

A Dream Of Poe certainly has potential, that's for sure. 'Infinity Emerged' is a great album, which deserves a place on any shelf where the earlier mentioned bands are present. However, I still think that they can do better. I've heard a lot of bands who try to recreate the magic of the classics and this one comes very, very close. Yet, I feel that this band can do even better, they have the ability not to recreate a classic but to create a completely new one. Keep an eye on these guys, they truly deserve your attention.

Author: Serge

Review
Hard Rock Info
22.12.2015

Feeling lonely and blue? Then this might be something for you. You get 5 soft and slow songs that are between 10.25 to 12.06 minutes. Some kind of gothic doom/dark metal with an atmosphere of a dream.
The band is originally from Portugal, but have relocated to Scotland presently. This is their second and most ambitious album. It's been compared with mid-period MY DYING BRIDE and "Gothic" era PARADISE LOST.
I'm not the one who can find any right words to describe this any better than that. But if you think it could be something for you, then I think you should check them out.
Best adventure: "The Isle Of Cinder".

Review
DoomToGrindZine
8/10
19.11.2015

A Dream of Poe are a band from Portugal that has been featured before in this zine and plays a gothic form of doom metal and this is a review of their 2015 album "An Infinity Emerged" which was released by Solitude Productions.

Clean playing starts off the album along with some drum beats and melodic singing a few seconds later which also leads up to a heavier doom metal direction that also mixes in a great amount of depressive melodies and female vocals can also be heard at times and all of the tracks are very long and epic in length.

All of the musical instruments on the recording have a very powerful sound to them and the solos and leads also remain true to a melodic style of doom metal and the whole album sticks to very slow musical direction bringing in some of the heaviness of early 90's doom/death metal without ever mixing in growls and screams.

A Dream Of Poe continue the gothic doom metal sound of previous recordings bringing in a more melodic approach to this genre and proving you can still be heavy with normal vocals, the production sounds very professional while the lyrics cover the writings of E.A Poe and poetic themes.

In my opinion this is another great sounding recording from A Dream Of Poe and if you are a fan of gothic/doom metal, you should check out this recording. RECOMMENDED TRACKS INCLUDE "Lethargus" and "Macula".

Author: OccultBlackMetal