Dungeon released
One Step Beyond in November 2004, but folks like me didn't manage to get their hands on it until much later. After hearing the bands two prior releases, anticipation was running high, and I finally had enough cash to buy it. I arrived home, put the album in my CD player, and cranked up the volume. I hear a guitar riffing in the distance, with a sound quality that rivals those of Black Metallers, and then voice over enters, stating "No Bull***, Just Play".
That just about sums up the album there. One Step Beyond rocks hard, and rocks well. Lord Tim and Stu do a superb job on guitars, creating numerous riffs that can only result in the thrashing of your head. As with most Power Metal, it's all higly influenced by the likes of Iron Maiden and Judas Priest, which keeps everything sounding very melodic. Of course, there are also a couple of slower numbers, which allow for some real beauty to be shown. The Hunger is a great example of this. I will however, say that the solo's on this album, whilst good, they seem to lack something that those on
A Rise To Power had.
Lord Tim also plays all of the recorded Bass on the album, (in addition to vocals and producing the thing as well!!) which is quite good. I actually think it's a little low in the mix, but if it was any louder it might start to take away from the other instruments. It's not outstanding, and becomes far more apparent during some of the softer interludes, and it tends to blend nicely when that occurs. The intro to
The Art Of War, or
The Hunger are the songs I'd recommend to any Bassists reading this review.
As with the the other Dungeon releases Drums are again good. I'm pretty sure Steve Moore was with the band for the albums recording, and he left soon after. His double kick is relentless, which brings a lot of energy out of the album. It does however, remain in context, so that's cool as well. Otherwise it seems like pretty straightfoward Power Metal style Drumming, with a couple of speedy fills scattered about the place.
The Vocals are one of my favourite aspects of Power Metal. No other genre gives the same desire to throw your head back and sing the chorus of a song at full volume. Dungeon do not fail to deliver in this department. Unfortunately I hadn't heard anything from this album when I had my final chance to see Dungeon live, but I now realise how awesome it would have been to know the words to those choruses. There is an extensive use of multitracking when it comes to the vocals on One Step Beyond, with the epic
Tarrano del Mar featuring a whopping 140 backing vocal tracks, and 220 tracks all up. Lyrically I feel as though the album sends out quite an optimistic message, with themes of fighting back against stacked odds. Even the song titles reflect this, ie;
The Power Within,
The Hunger.
Overall, the album is a good listen. Everything seems to blend together nicely, and it's certainly got something to offer for anyone who's a fan of Power Metal, or Traditional styles of Metal. Unfortunately, the album isn't really groundbreaking in any way, so those looking for something pushes the current musical boundaries might be a little disappointed. Lord Tim deserves a huge amount of recognition for putting this thing together, as he really has done a lot. He actually even did some keyboards on a couple of the songs, but I tend to be listening to intently on everything else to notice them.
Pros
Great Vocals
Catchy, memorable songs
Tarrano del Mar
Cons
A little generic
One Step Beyond gets a well deserved 4/5 from me.
