Wow, where did this come from? Don't be a smartass and say the Czech Republic. Being that this is only their second album, I was mainly under the impression that most folks haven't experienced the festival of delight that is Eagleheart, but prepare yourself anyway: they hit much harder than the average Helloween clone. "Dreamtherapy" is a straightforward purge into Eagleheart's conscious influences, yet the group's compositional skills and passionate augmentations are nonetheless impressive feats from a band rapidly approaching the summit of Everest. All fifty minutes of "Dreamtherapy" strike with the force of an automatic shotgun, and even the smaller elements like a crispy guitar tone make Eagleheart's effort a simple slice of charming enchantment.
"Dreamtherapy" generally reflects a lot of the traits portrayed by Edguy or Helloween, two bands that are undeniably worshipped by these dudes. If I only had a line or two to summarize "Dreamtherapy," I'd call it a consistent exploration of power metal on and off energy drinks. Eagleheart sequentially bursts into Valhalla with mega-ripping carnivals of speed and jolting guitar work throughout "Shades of Nothing" and the glorious title track, but there's still a lot of mid-paced rockers that simply pulverize; something like "Burned by the Sun" is a prime cut of awesome metal that just slides off the bone. Don't complain if those riffs fracture your neck. The vocals are good, but definitely aren't as hot as Eagleheart's overall effort. The singer appears a little tired and clearly struggles keeping up with the band's pace at times, but most of his performance is overall quite adequate.
Eagleheart's songwriting lassoes in a lot of melodic themes and some real complex arrangements as well, but they really don't dabble into progressive territory barring the debatable section popping up every few tracks or so. Most of the riffs, percussion patterns and melodies are just fierce and addictive, and there's really no better combination of the group's obvious strengths than the opening "Shades of Nothing" which fades between frozen fire and burning ice as if Zeus dumped the snow of Olympus on the sun. And as I said, "Burned by the Sun" totally rocks, and the huge, layered sections of "Wheel of Sorrow" are also brushing against excellence. But it's not like these dudes hit it big once or twice and then stuff the rest of the record with filler; they really have their heads in the right spot, and this is pretty much a must-have for fans of Edguy, Helloween, or power metal in general.