Back in 1999, when Nuclear Blast released its first Metal Dreams compilation featuring fat slabs of slow-burning heavy metal, the liner notes assured listeners that the label didn't "totally wimp out" by going soft. Indeed, while the fact that Nuclear Blast included artists not on its roster was impressive, the album sounds almost too gloomy, doomy and non-wimpy. A plethora of gothic- and death-metal bands – Love Like Blood, Crematory, Dismal Euphony – made certain segments of Metal Dreams sound more like Metal Nightmares. The second volume of Metal Dreams followed less than a year later and – despite the inexplicable (and practically inexcusable) inclusion of Skid Row's "18 and Life" and Mr. Big's "To Be With You" – boasted a much more solid line-up of real metal ballads by real metal bands like Iced Earth, Steel Prophet and Sonata Arctica.
The recently released third volume of Metal Dreams picks up where the second volume left off by serving up goose-bump metal from Hammerfall ("Always Will Be") Helloween ("If I Could Fly"), Primal Fear ("Bleed for Me"), Iced Earth ("Melancholy") and Nevermore ("The Heart Collector"), as well as some strategically chosen gothic and death bands, including many female-fronted outfits like Orphanage ("Cliffs of Moher"), Lacuna Coil ("Stars"), The Gathering ("Rollercoaster") and Orphaned Land ("The Beloved's Cry"). Still, it's easy to wonder why some of these tracks didn't wind up on the latest Beauty in Darkness compilation -- Nuclear Blast's recently released fifth volume of gothic ballads -- to make way for tunes from bands like, say, Jag Panzer, Edguy or Kamelot. As the title implies, all volumes of Metal Dreams are best listened to by candlelight late in the evening, either alone or with someone else for whom metal dreams can also be wet dreams.
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