Dec 13, 2009 - Dark Moor Discografia. Link: 2000 - The Hall Of The Olden Dreams Tracks.

This album is one of the most beautiful albums I have ever heard. I do not simply just listen to one song off of it when listening. I think the E-flat tuning is a major factor in this. Songs like 'Somewhere In Dreams', 'Maid Of Orleans', 'Bells Of Notre Dame', 'Silver Lake', 'The Sound Of The Blade', and 'Hand In Hand' will take the listener to a fantastical realm of awe with their divine sounding choruses, ripping guitar solos, and riffs that will forever stay in your head.

(No useless poetic stuff intended there.) I felt like the rhythm guitar part was a little too quiet though. It just sounded a bit. I think Dark Moor could have brought out the rhythm guitar more, but the lead guitar part in this album is spot-on.

By far, my favorite thing about the vocals of this album is the verse to 'Bells Of Notre Dame'. The choice of notes for the verses is a perfect melody to convey Quasimodo's inner conflict. Thinking about the rhythm put to the notes of the first verse, it kinda sounds. A little bit. The rhythm to the first half of the verse is swing 8th notes, then every measure of the verse ends with a half note might I just note. I took a look at some of Enrik Garcia's (guitarist) inspirations from the thanks section in the booklet that came with the CD.

These included: Yngwie J. Malmsteen, Kai Hansen (Helloween/Gamma Ray), Michael Romeo (Symphony X), Alexi Laiho (Children of Bodom), W.A. Vivaldi, P.L.

Tschaikovsky, Angra, Rhapsody, and J.R.R. Tolkein, H.P. Lovecraft, and Edgar Allen Poe. All of these influences are present in this album. In closing, 'The Hall Of The Olden Dreams' is a huge step-up from Dark Moor's debut album, 'Shadowland'. One of the most captivating albums I've ever heard. Definitely on my essential power metal albums list.

I heard about Dark Moor through a good friend of mine who lives in California, I never really payed heed to them or anything, when I saw the cover art for this album I shook it off as an attempted Blind Guardian rip off. After having received a song from said buddy and putting my play list on my media player on shuffle and hearing 'Somewhere in Dreams' I fell in love right away. After searching my usual record shops for anything from them my luck turned when the smallest one had a copy of this album (small is sometimes a good thing). When I first popped it into my CD player in my vehicle and heard 'The Ceremony' right away my mind when to Rhapsody, but way better. Rarely do I find albums that strike a perfect balance of instruments and this is one of those the keyboards are the perfect volume, the guitars are nice and audible, and best of all the vocals. I didn't know until I got home the vocalist was a woman.

She sounds like Fabio Leone with something else there I cant really say, best to say she's not like the usual typical female metal vocalist, all operatic and gothy, no this woman is metal straight up! Every track on here is amazing striking the perfect mix of classical and metal with well written fantasy lyrics that I've not heard in awhile, also the backing choruses make it FAR more than your average power metal album, only Blind Guardian top these. The best track on here being 'Somewhere in Dreams' for me, I can listen to it all day and not get bored. This is a wholehearted recommendation to pick this up for whatever price. Quite possibly the biggest complaint I find for the album though is the solo's seem to short, but there's still enough melody and interludes where it should not dissuade you. Dark Moor were a very good band at the recording of 'Shadowland'. However, they have increased their production quality and brought out more of their classical flair with 'The Hall Of The Olden Dreams'.

The good thing about higher recording budgets is that the neo-classical guitar solos are a lot easier to hear, and they sound about one hundred times better. With 'Shadowland' the guitars sounded sort of distant, but that problem is gone now. You hear this improvement the most with the fifth track, 'Silver Lake', which features speedy riffing and a solo that is a highlight in Dark Moor's career.

Blue face game farm. A drawback to this album was the fact that the songs were much less different from one another. With their previous piece the songs definitely had more variety. I am not saying their is no variety here, however, but most of the songs sound alike, with the exceptions of 'Beyond The Fire' and Sound Of The Blade'.

Unvarying songs is not usually a bad thing, especially with a band with such good style, but I became just slightly bored around track six. The only other gripe I have about the CD is how Dark Moor have found themselves a certain annoying trademark. This is the fact that their works start out with shitty instrumentals, which have no purpose whatsoever, except to fill a gap. This 'tradition' will be continued later as well, with their later albums.