Dream Evil

An awesome underground heavy metal band hailing from Sweden, formed by Fredrik Nordström in 1999 in an attempt to establish the old-school feel of melodic power metal. Since releasing their first album, Dream Evil have developed a style that's been loosely inspired by HammerFall, as well as minor influences from Dio and Helloween. Many people dismiss Dream Evil for their blatantly over-the-top, "try too hard to be cool" nature. These sorts of people completely forget that Dream Evil are like this; they have senses of humour, they don't take themselves seriously, and don't mind poking fun at themselves and the metal genre by going over-the-top in both dress and style. The thing is that Dream Evil still manage to be cool while being "cheesy and overdone" (as many narrow-minded critics call them). They're not exactly the most famous and well-known of Sweden's metal bands, but they don't have to be. Dream Evil aren't after attaining fame, they're about the sheer, thundering power of heavy metal... in which they succeed in spades. The band includes Niklas Isfeldt (vocals), Fredrik Nordström as the group's rhythmic guitarist, Mark U. Black (who replaced the band's former member Gus G., who originally left to pursue other projects), Peter Stalfors on bass guitar, and Sweden's drumming legend Snowy Shaw (who's played with practically every goddamned Scandinavian band under the sun). Interestingly enough, Dream Evil's members are Christian, but they keep their faith separate from their music (with the possible exception of "Heavy Metal Jesus", which tipped many listeners off to their religious nature). Dream Evil aren't the preachy, pious-type of Christian band, which proves that Christians can play heavy metal like everybody else without having their lyrics riddled with bible passages (of which Christian metal, or "white metal", genre is condemned for by agnostic metalheads). Dream Evil's official site can be found at: http://www.dreamevil.se/index.html It's updated very infrequently, but the site has a pretty big gallery of their concert photos to make up for it. Their member profiles are also very comprehensive without being too boring or lengthy.