LUCID DREAM – A Peaceful Death

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I have been following Lucid Dream since their second album The Eleventh Illusion (2013), and while I rather liked that one, as well as it successor Otherworldly (2016), their last album The Great Dance Of The Spirit (2020) somewhat disappointed me due to too many soft songs. Unfortunately, bandleader and guitarist Simone Terigi decided to continue in that direction on their self-produced fifth album A Peaceful Death.

One can’t complain about lack of talent. Terigi is a terrific guitarist who seems to be influenced by bands from the late seventies and early eighties, with Rush and Van Halen coming to mind, at lease on those few songs where the band is still rocking. As on the opener Dawn Of A New World, a driving upbeat piece of music that allows the musicians to shine. Vocal duties are shared between Roberto Tiranti (Labyrinth, Ken Hensley…) and Karl Faraci, keyboard player Luca Scherani and drummer Paolo Tixi have both played with progressive rock bands, Hostsonaten and La Maschera di Cera respectively. So nothing can go wrong with the technical aspects of the music, and the production values are also beyond complaint. But their second song Out Of Time, a ballad, robs the album of its momentum. Especially the saxophone solo that ends the song sounds like the awful stuff Pink Floyd made themselves guilty of in the eighties. Open Cages is yet another ballad, mostly played on acoustic guitar. The six and a half minute long Heroes Of Light may start like a folk ballad in the style of Blackmore’s Night, but soon metamorphoses into a fine progressive hard rock tune that shows that Lucid Dream can still rock. Two more ballads, Ruins and Broken Hopes, follow before Father offers some proggy Rush inspired rock music. The final three tracks are, you guessed it, some more ballads.

Don’t get me wrong: I do like ballads. Ruins is kind of sweet, and Wheel Of Karma has an ambient meditative feeling that is quite a good idea to finish the album, but let’s face it: in their early years, Lucid Dream were a band whose progressive spin on hard rock music made them a rather original band, considering that most prefer to play harsher kinds of prog metal. Simone Terigi seems to be on a different path nowadays, and while that is his good right, it still pains me that the three actual hard rock songs show that Lucid Dream can still pull it off, but have decided to let the softer aspects of their music prevail. More heart rock than hard rock, if you allow the pun. If you don’t mind an album consisting mostly of rock ballads performed on a high level, this might appeal to you, but those who prefer their guitars more distorted are better served with Lucid Dream’s earlier albums.

10 songs

47:04 minutes

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Genre: progressive hard rock

(self-released)

Released: 22nd January 2025

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