Conor Fynes 'Melotronical' - Factory of Dreams (8/10)

For all of the purported ambition and willingness to innovate to be found within progressive rock and metal, it's all too rare that a band's music will prove to overwhelm or surprise me. Perhaps it's a result of we as listeners having been desensitized to a lot of it; after all, when everything is extreme, ultimately nothing is. Regardless, Factory of Dreams' style of operatic space metal has hit me like a freight train, racing across some vast and cosmic terrain. Even entering a crowded genre as it is, Melotronical still manages to knock me over with one of the most over-the-top, bombastic and balls-out sounds in progressive metal I've ever heard. Moderation and subtlety are indeed alien concepts to Factory of Dreams' third album, and while the unrelenting hyperactivity undoubtedly makes it something of a love-or-hate-it affair, Melotronical has the potential to wow even the most seasoned prog metal veterans.

If I described Melotronical as a 'space metal opera', many reading this could certainly come up with their own ideas about what the band and album might sound like. Although details would vary from listener to listener, some elements would be very common to the listeners; among them, a larger-than-life atmosphere, chugging guitars, epic vocals and one foot in the space electronic genre. Factory of Dreams doesn't circumvent any of these preconceptions surrounding operatic space metal; instead, the music draws in common tropes from this niche genre, and amps them up to a ridiculously high standard of energy and bombast. While space metal regulars like Ayreon and Dol Ammad could each make a strong case in terms of comparison, I'm often reminded of Devin Townsend, and his often-overwhelming eagerness to amp up his music to the 11th degree, creating a wall of sound that can't be broken through and entirely calculated, the listener's attentiveness be damned. Although Melotronical was released in 2011, the album's 'calculated chaos' style of orchestration reminds me of two albums that came out the year after: one being Devin Townsend's loud-and-epic Epicloud, the other being Wintersun's polarizing Time I. With regards to the latter, some readers might recall the debates surrounding Wintersun, whether the overly dense orchestrations and symphonic arrangements verged on the realm of genius, or simply got in the way of the traditional hooks and grooves other listeners were left craving for. Given a comparable distribution, I would not be at all surprised to have seen listeners debating the same thing about Melotronical.

Ultimately, Factory of Dreams may often sound like the music could use a breath of fresh air at times, but I also know that the sound wouldn't have had as much of an initial shock and impact on me had there been a greater degree of restraint. Although the constant drive and chugging rhythms can serve to desensitize the listener to the orchestral intensity sometime before the album has finished, Factory of Dreams have been more than up to the task of balancing out this approach with detail, dynamic and plenty of compelling ideas. Even the album's mellow moments- which often dive into prog electronic territory in the style of pioneers like Tangerine Dream- feel loaded with wall-of-sound textures and cosmic Easter eggs. Surprisingly, almost all of this is the work and performance of one man, Hugo Flores. Although an operatic soprano is lent here by Jessica Lehto, Hugo has been responsible for all of the instrumentation and orchestrations. The fact that Melotronical has been forged from what is essentially a one-man band is all the more impressive. Nothing here sounds like it has suffered from the imbalance of 'solo artist syndrome', and even the drums- often the weakest point in one-man bands- sound wild and exciting in spite of being artificial.

Although the sure highlight of Factory of Dreams' sound on Melotronical is their intensely cosmic ambiance and mind-boggling orchestrations, the vocals are worthy of note on their own. While I imagine it would have been a hard time squeezing proper vocals into music this bombastic and instrumentally busy, the vocals here really work. Although Jessica Lehto's floaty soprano doesn't sound unlike many other female vocalists in the symphonic and gothic metal genre, the vocal arrangements are kept quite busy themselves; harmonies and complex melodies are commonplace here, and there's even room for the occasionally catchy hook. All impressions look towards the guitar as Hugo Flores' flagship instrument, but the guitars are what stand out the least here. Even the programmed drums manage to profit from the music's manic pacing, and while all of the orchestrations seem appropriately mixed together in the final production, the guitars lose their independent bite amidst the chaos. After having finished the album, I don't remember any particular riffs or moments where the guitars shone beyond their traditional role as a rhythm-keeper.

Indeed, Factory of Dreams is a band that has me wondering still where Melotronical would sit in terms of quality when compared to other albums and artists. For one, the atmosphere and scope of the music is menacingly impressive, infectious even; it's impossible to put this album on without being enveloped by it. The sheer energy of Factory of Dreams' cosmic style simply demands the listener's attention without question or distraction. It's as densely composed as a neutron star, and prospective listeners who don't give it the full due are robbing themselves of the potential this album has to impress and even shock. At the same time, I have a difficult time picking out particular highlight tracks from the album, much less distinguish the songs apart. Like a progressive metal summer blockbuster, Melotronical feels absolutely larger-than-life in virtually every way, and while I know the album could have benefitted from some counterbalance in the way of moderation and knowing when to hold back, the way Factory of Dreams have conjured the essence of space metal and amplified it to galactic excesses deserves to be experienced by prog and symphonic metal fans alike.

dtguitarfan Well, this album was a complete surprise to me - I couldn't believe I hadn't heard of it before. Quickest way to describe this band - Bizarro is to Superman what Factory of Dreams is to Nightwish. In a good way. There are a lot of sound related similarities to Nightwish I hear in this album, such as the style of keyboards and how they are mixed with the other metal elements, the singer often sounds like Tarja Tarunen. But the composition is what is surprising in this album. Vocal harmonies play a big role, and this band often will add in some odd dissonances on top of standard vocal harmonies. Another technique they use is to underlay a somewhat common sounding melody with rapid-fire kick drumming and rhythm guitars that often feature changing time signatures. These techniques take something that could be merely another female fronted symphonic metal act in the vein of Nightwish, and make the music incredibly interesting. This is going on my shortlist of albums to listen to again very soon.

adg211288 Melotronical is the third album from Factory of Dreams, which is one of the projects of Portuguese musician Hugo Flores. Flores has made music with several projects in the past including Sonic Pulsar and Project Creation, with Factory of Dreams being his latest project, in which he forms half of a duo with vocalist Jessica Lehto. Melotronical was released in 2011 and is easily the group’s strongest album to date.

I’m sure that I read somewhere where Flores dubbed the music of Melotronical as ‘cybermetal’. While that sort of term itself may invite raised eyebrows or even criticism from some since it isn’t a universally recognised genre of metal music, upon listening to Melotronical I can’t say it’s not an accurate description, both musically and lyrically. The music mixes metal with some electronic influences to great effect and lyrically the album is a conceptual piece with a sci-fi themed story. If you’re looking for a more ‘normal’ genre to pigeon-hole an album such as this then progressive metal is probably your best bet, with Melotronical sounding guaranteed to appeal to those with the most far out progressive or perhaps even avant-garde tastes, though in all honesty it focuses less on the progressive tendencies then some of Flores prior work - instead delivering some truly crazy stuff, but retaining a sense of direction, which all in all makes Melotronical a very thrilling listen whether you’re listening to the really rocking tracks such as opener Enter Nucleon or the beautiful ballad Back to Sleep. There’s also some strong classical parts on the album, mostly thanks to the impressive vocals of Jessica Lehto.

The vocals are one of the biggest differences on Melotronical compared to Factory of Dream’s previous works though, as Hugo Flores delivers a lot of the vocals himself to the point that he and Lehto can be considered co-vocalists, though there remains some songs on the album that feature only Lehto’s vocals. Previously it was very clear that Jessica was the group’s only singer, and despite how good she is the expansion of the band’s sound to include Hugo’s vocals really works for Factory of Dreams. Flores has a great voice and his vocals compliment Jessica’s, and speaking personally for a minute here, it’s good to hear him again since speaking as someone very familiar with his work with Sonic Pulsar (in my opinion one of the most underrated groups ever), it’s very clear how much he has improved as a vocalist since those albums. Jessica Lehto is certainly the vocal star here though, putting on a completely breathtaking and varied performance. This girl certainly needs more recognition from the fans of female vocals in metal.

There are also some great atmospheric parts in the album that harkens back to Flores work with Sonic Pulsar as well, such as the start of fourth track, Protonic Stream, although they crop up all over the place in Melotronical. I don’t think there’s anyone else who can make atmospheric parts in metal songs quite the way Hugo Flores does, and those ideas are used to perfection on Melotronical, which results in it being one of the best albums that Hugo Flores has contributed to date.

All in all Melotronical is a much more aggressive beast than either Poles or A Strange Utopia was, since those albums could be best considered as atmospheric metal. The new approach really works for them though, because the end result is a very exciting and dare I say insane album that blows the group’s previous two offerings out of the water, and those albums were good in their own right. However while those albums were good, Melotronical takes it up past the great levels and into the true masterwork level. Factory of Dreams have certainly found their niche here and I only expect even more great things from them in the future.

Melotronical is an album with a really great flow to it. The sound is so powerful in its intensity that it leaves me speechless at how much the group has changed since A Strange Utopia. Prior to Melotronical I probably would have considered Factory of Dreams to be Flores weakest project but Melotronical firmly establishes that such a thought would be an insulting injustice. While it’s probably true that this sort of album requires the most dedicated of listener, it’s also a much more rewarding album because of it than your standard progressive metal affair.

Well then it’s probably about time I drew this review to a close, I’ve waffled on for over an A4 page now, but to be honest I don’t think words are ever going to able to do this album any sort of justice. If you like your progressive metal as eccentric as you can get it then my advice to you is to do yourself a favour and get this one right now! This is perfection, pure and simple, and it deserves full points no matter how I look at it.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scoring 10.0/10)