Originally released in the not-so traditional metal friendly climate of 1999, Quicksand Dream’s Aelin: A Story About Destiny has been rescued from obscurity by Planet Metal Records. The back story is pretty simple and all too-familiar, as the band circulated roughly 30 CDRs (remember those?) amongfriends
upon completion, only for the band to quickly dissolve and fade into the background. Hopefully this doesn’t kick-start a new trend of lesser-worthy bands crawling out of the woodwork with hopes of having their works heard, but anyway…
The Swedish duo of Göran Jacobson and Patrick Backlund have created a concept album (most likely involving a character named “Aelin”) that quickly wraps its tentacles around the proto-metal works of Manilla Road, and Rush, drawing instant parallels to modern traditionalists While Heaven Wept and Atlantean Kodex. The production is suitably dry and raw, sounding as if it were recorded during 70s, a trait that gives the album some allure.
Jacobson is awfully nasal and Ian Anderson-like, although he has some cool moments during portions of “A Child Is Born” and the very-prog “The Lighthouse’s Dream.” The momentum-driven “Caress of the Breeze” emerges as the real standout here, with adventurous bass lines and bounties of twinguitar
action topping things off, while the concept eventually climaxes with the nearly 10-minute “Aelin’s Oath.”
Given its original place in time, Aelin: A Story About Destiny sticks out like a sore thumb, but today’s metal climate is diverse enough to welcome such albums. Although it’s not exactly world-beating, it’s an album at least worth hearing, especially for those who know what it’s like to have one’s CDR dreams effectively buried.
www.myspace.com/quicksanddream
(This content originally appeared on Blistering.com)