Dakesis are a Prog Power Metal from Birmingham, UK. The band consists of Gemma Lawler – Vocals / Keys, Matt Jones – Guitar, Amie Chatterley – Bass and Adam Harris – Drums.

Four years ago, I came across Dakesis. They sent me their album The New Dawn to have a listen and to review. So when they sent me their new offering Fractures to review, I was thinking, “OK, I loved The New Dawn album and I have also seen you live twice, and I thought you were brilliant”.

To read The New Dawn review click here.

So when I put the Fractures album for the first time over the weekend, I thought “OK, what have you got for me”. Now, since I saw them live, and listened to their The New Dawn album, I had some high expectations with this album, as I have been somewhat following their progress with the album. So, like I said I put the album on, just to get an initial impression of it, and from that initial listen through, I was struck on how they have improved on what they doing from The New Dawn album, by that Gemma has grown vocally, Amie has improved on the bass, Matt is more skilled on the guitar, and so is Adam on the drums.

The track listings: Eos, End Of Time Pt 1, End Of Time Pt 2, Overthrown, Kairos, Surrender Your Fears, Hold Forever, Legacy In Memory, and Fractures.

The first track on the album is Eos, this little two minute track is a brilliant opener for the Fractures album, now when I read the title of the track, I thought OK, where I have I heard that name before, I did a quick search and Eos is a Greek Titan, or God of the dawn, and I was OK, I am starting to see a pattern developing here with this album, as the band is going for an album about time in general, as you can imagine this track has a morning vibe to it, and it has a beautifully arranged strings throughout the track.

Up next is End Of Time Pt. 1, on this track it pretty follows on from Eos, but in the full Prog Metal onslaught, what made me like this song, is the combination drums and guitar from Adam and Matt, the vocals from Gemma are brilliant, and the bass line from Amie is sublime. End Of Time Pt. 2, like the the first part, there is added Symphonic element to the track, also a piano and keyboard elements, this is another track the drums that got headbanging away along to the beat, plus I like Matt’s guitar work on this as well.

Overthrown is up next, and this is another epic track from Dakesis, as it has perfect blend of Prog Metal, Symphonic Metal, powerful vocals, thunderous bass lines and drums, and brilliant guitar riffs. Kairos is up next, I little history here, Kairos is another name for Cronos (Father Time) who is the father of the Greek chief god Zeus, and Kairos has another meaning of Seize The Moment, now back to the song, this song has some amazing thunderous drumming and the guitars are brilliant as there is some brilliant riffs and shredding, the vocals are awesome on here, as they sore, the bass line is superb throughout the song.

Surrender Your Fears, is one of my favourite tracks off the album, as this has everything on it that like on it, soaring vocals, a brilliant bass line, double kick drums, awesome riffs throughout the track, and brilliant symphonic and tribal drumming elements on parts of the song, and even some choral vocals, and all of this mixed together, Surrender Your Fears is a monster of a track.

Hold Forever is up next and is also another monster of a track, what Dakesis have created here is epic, all the heavy elements of Metal are on this song, with monstrous drumming, heavy guitars, thunderous bass, soaring vocals, amazing symphony accompaniment, with that being said this is another song that is another firm favourite of mine. Legacy In Memory is next, this is a brilliant piano led song with a symphony backing the song on the whole, with a brilliant bass line from Amie from start to finish, the guitar and drums come in the last third of the song, which gives the song some real gravitas to it.

The last track off the album is the title song Fractures, this song is the longest track coming in just over fifteen minutes, this song is absolutely brilliant epic, and like with other dongs on the album it has sublime music from the band and the vocals from Gemma are superb and on point, and this is a must listen to track to get the full effect of it.

Well, Dakesis have done it again, they have produced something special here with the Fractures album, as it has everything that you want of a Prog Power Metal band. So if you are into the Prog Power Metal genre, or wanting to listen to something new, then I would highly recommend that you go and check Dakesis out on their Facebook page. In the coming weeks, I will be playing the album in full on the Project Metal Across The Pond radio show on Digital Revolution Radio, the show is on every Thursday, and the show is on at 9pm to midnight UK time (4pm to 7pm US EST time).

I would give Dakesis and their Fractures album a 5 out of 5 for a truly superb album

Project Metal Music