Jacobs Dream ~ USA ~ Columbus, Ohio

Drama of the Ages (2005)

Until late last year, I had never even heard of the grammatically incorrect Jacobs Dream. A few years ago, I bought a pile of metal CDs (all new or barely used) for $1 to $2 each, and stuck them in a drawer. Somehow I ended up with the first three Jacobs Dream albums. After hearing and enjoying the first one, I pulled the other two out for a higher priority than "tossed in a container forever" status. Of the CDs from that pile, some were hardly worth the pennies I paid. But Jacobs Dream is exactly the gem in the rough I was looking for.

As I noted on the debut, Jacobs Dream takes the premise of the Queensryche EP and runs with it. They are much heavier than our friends from Seattle were to become, and on the first two albums, singer David Taylor did a fine job at emulating Geoff Tate - himself imitating Rob Halford to an extent. For Drama of the Ages, Taylor is gone and Chaz Bond has taken the mic (cool name, eh?). His vocals are a bit disorienting at first, lower in register than Taylor, but still the Tate-isms are in play. Musically Jacobs Dream remain similar. They are not really progressive metal, but they have progressive elements, similar to the older vintage metal bands. The music is certainly heavy, and there are twists and turns within each track - and some sparse synthesizers. Miles away from the gymnastic Dream Theater school, Jacobs Dream provides you plenty of room for good old fashioned headbanging. Lyrically the band is becoming more and more overtly Christian. You would never know it by the music though. This is not praise-be-to-the-heavens hymnal work. But rather a different subject matter than what you might initially think hearing the music only.

This ended the three album run on America's preeminent heavy label Metal Blade. The fact that you can still find sealed copies for under $5 tells me the band weren't a big seller, despite the high quality and consistently great reviews from metal critics. From here the band began to self-release and later joined the Christian metal label roster of Retroactive. If any of these albums roam past my wire for a good price, I'm buying.

Ownership: 2005 Metal Blade (CD). Lyric booklet

2/7/19 (review)

Jacobs Dream (2000)

The summer of 1983 was an exciting time for us young metal fans, and one of the great new hopes was a band from Seattle named Queensryche, who had just released their eponymous debut EP on their own private 206 label (area code for Seattle). It was exactly the right kind of metal I was looking for, a pre sell-out Judas Priest type album with incredible songs, heavy riffage, and a gifted high-pitched singer. Unfortunately they were never to repeat this sound again, though whatever they did decide on was immensely popular, but it wasn't for me.

Enter Jacobs Dream, a somewhat obscure band from Columbus, Ohio, who are still toiling to this day. This - their year 2000 debut - is the album I was waiting for from Queensryche - and I didn't hear it until 2018. So I'm 18 years behind the times, and Queensryche is 34 years overdue. This is just the kind of traditional heavy metal I like, with real songcraft, excellent riffs and guitar solos, a little bit of progressive, but not overtly so. And vocalist David Taylor is really quite accomplished, reminding me every bit of Geoff Tate in his prime. You'll hear snippets of other groups as well such as Number of the Beast era Iron Maiden, Fates Warning circa The Spectre Within, and even Rush (listen to 'The Gathering' to see what I mean here). The music is not pitch perfect and is rough around edges - just the way I like it. Easy recommendation for those where the above time and place resonates.

Ownership: 2000 Metal Blade (CD)

9/28/18 (review)

9/28/18 (new entry)