Review: Dreamwalkers Inc – The First Tragedy of Klahera

Style: traditional progressive metal, symphonic metal (mostly clean vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Ayreon, Nightwish, Dream Theater, Redemption
Review by: Sam
Country: The Netherlands
Release date: 24 November 2023

I’ve always had a mixed relation to music from my own country. For some reason, nearly every melodic rock/metal group from The Netherlands has a symphonic sound with the same blunt, “wooden” (as we would call it in Dutch) singing style (although that might just be my native accent shame). Tom de Wit historically has been both of these, but he’s always made up for it by sheer creativity. His solo work under the TDW moniker is an inconsistent bag of high highs and low lows, but with Dreamwalkers Inc,he has a full band and has so far provided a more concise experience; I still revisit their debut First Re-Draft at least semi-regularly, so you can imagine my shock to see him back with an album that’s eighty-six minutes long (literally twice the length of First Re-Draft). Did De Wit make it work this time or has he once again eschewed all self-editing?

The first thing that struck me about The First Tragedy of Klahera is that the production has taken a big hit. The individual elements are all there, but they don’t come together in a nice way. The vocals are too far back in the mix besides when they’re singing in choir, the guitars have a thick tone but somehow manage to sound both too loud and too thin; the bass is hard to pick out; and the drums sound canned. Klahera is not unlistenable by any means, but the resulting mix is strangely hollow which doesn’t bode well for an album this long, and uneven mastering doesn’t help things either.

What does help things is the variety of the record. Whereas the debut First Re-Draft stayed clearly within the confines of symphonic prog metal, Klahera shows all the eclecticism De Wit so far has reserved for his solo project. He takes more risks in his compositions, often putting disparate ideas together in the same song: fast thrash riffs, choirs, midtempo melodic hard rock, industrial touches, Floydian atmosphere, and more all permeate his symphonic prog metal based sound in opener “Justice, My Tragedy,” and we see a similar playing with moods in other cuts. Vocally it’s no longer just De Wit and his choir, but now Radina Dimcheva has ascended to lead vocal duties as well. Unfortunately, she suffers the most from poor mixing, being buried so deep in the sound that making out what she’s singing is difficult, which is a shame because she has a wonderfully smooth voice.

Delving further into the vocals… god, the vocals. It’s beating a dead horse at this point, but De Wit is just so out there that I have to talk about it. He’s a technically proficient singer – don’t get me wrong – but his accent is Louis van Gaal levels of thick, and he has this very Dutch way of singing where he over-articulates each and every letter while using a flat tone for nearly every syllable, and it drives me NUTS – for the mathematicians here, his singing is like looking at a histogram instead of the graph of a smooth function – yet at the same time, I find his voice weirdly endearing. He has a real talent for writing memorable vocal melodies and he compensates for his “wooden” delivery with sincerity and passion that somehow comes through regardless. It reminds me of how Fabio Lione managed to sound convincing on early Rhapsody despite his many faults as a singer. Speaking of Rhapsody, Dreamwalkers Inc uses cheesy spoken word sections at the end of each song to transition into the next one, a strategy which is, well… a choice.

The riffing style of this band is very 80s; the type that your Metallica-loving dad would raise the horns to and say “yeah! These are so metal! \m/” but they sound largely outdated in the current prog metal scene, and similar goes to the classic heavy metal harmonies the band employs. The guitarwork is enjoyable, sure, but I have a hard time envisioning any of these riffs or harmonies making the cut on the best works of the bands they were inspired by. 

The biggest elephant in the room is, of course, the length. Unlike many of my colleagues, I’m not against long albums in principle since a double album is a different artform that is more about the journey than the destination, rather akin to a podcast than to a condensed video essay. With Klahera I was mostly having a good time. I found myself charmed by many of the softer, folkier bits such as the shanty vibe on “Celebrations,” as well as the explosiveness found in many of the guitar solos and in the power metal-inspired tracks like “Despicable” or “Discovery.”  Choral harmonies, which are generally done tastefully, are also a key feature of De Wit’s music. Special mention should go to the epic “Mother Dearest” for its many twists and spectacular build-up to its climax on a waltz rhythm. My only real issue in regards to length is that on the closing epic, “Chain of Consequence,” the story takes over the music, meandering around until it fizzles out on a meek “to be continued” instead of a clear cut ending following a sweeping finale. 

I often cringe at the bluntness of De Wit’s artistry, but his sincerity, melody-writing, and creativity are very charming. The First Tragedy of Klahera is a very ambitious record with many polarizing elements. I have a hard time envisioning it appealing to most younger prog metal fans because of the old school elements and cheese factor, but if you enjoy some cheese and don’t mind long albums, it’s a record worth sinking your teeth into.

Recommended tracks: Broken Puzzle Pieces, Mother Dearest, Discovery
You may also like: TDW, Flaming Row, Beyond the Bridge
Final verdict: 5/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Layered Reality Productions – Bandcamp | Facebook | Official Website

Dreamwalkers Inc is:
– Tom de Wit (vocals, keyboards)
– Radina Dimcheva (vocals)
– Lennert Kemper (guitars, vocals)
– Norbert Veenbrink (guitars)
– Björn van der Ploeg (bass)
– Sander van Elferen (drums)

With guests:
– Otto Kokke (saxophone on track 9)

And choir:
– Iris de Boer
– Holly Frances Royle
– Rich Gray
– Rania Bailey
– Richard De Geest
– Jeroen Nels