I thought the purpose with side-projects was doing something a little, if not completely different than your main band. Jesper Strömblad of In Flames is part of this band, and as I don’t entirely understand it on the one hand, I definitely get it on the other. After the reeking pile of crap his main band recently turned into, it’s clear that he wants to do some straight-out face-slapping melodic death metal again. Strömblad isn’t the only famous melodeather to be part of this though. Daniel Antonsson of Dark Tranquility lends his guitar skills, and this is sounding very much like a supergroup when I mention that earlier Marduker Jocke is at the mic. However, despite all the established musicians to grace this band with their presence, Dimension Zero hasn’t gained the acknowledgement they aimed at with their previous releases. I was a huge In Flames fan back in the day when they used to deliver, and am overall pretty fond of well-executed melodic death metal, so I embraced this with great anticipation after looking at the mighty line-up, and I wasn’t by any means let down.

Dimension Zero doesn’t bring anything new or groundbreaking to the scene. They play fast and fun melodic death metal. Imagine Arch Enemy riffs mixed with earlier In Flames melody breaks coupled with the furious vocal attack by Jocke Gothjeberg. This is fast and furious, excluding those annoying and monotonous clean vocals and core-y breakdowns. Well, this has breakdowns, but not the ones we’ve become unwillingly familiar with during the recent years. The vocals remain harsh coupled with decent melodies. As I said, earlier this is nothing new. The title-track kicks it all off with your typical exciting riffs, brutal but never puke-y vocals, and nice melodic breaks. The drumming is however faster and more intense than on present-day melodeath records. The less famous Hans Nilsson keeps punishing the cans, filling every hole possible and driving this beast forward. These guys know their game, but still, after the hook-fest that is A Paler Shade of White (A Darker Side of Black) all the typical and fairly generic stuff is getting a little too much space, and this starts to slip into the somewhat boring territory that is so hard to stay away from. The melodies tends to get increasingly annoying and unnecessarily forced, however, the band throws in straight-forward and brutally tasting stuff like Red Dead Heat to break the dominant melodic songs up a little. I Can Hear The Dark is also creating a darker mood, yet it’s still blast-beating fun, and isn’t poisoned by their lust for melody which is so apparent on upcoming and previous tracks.

It’s not a well kept secret that these guys can create killer melodic death metal. If anyone doubted, Deny will definitely prove them wrong. Great sweeping riffs mixed with very good melodic breakdowns and mood-settlers and some increasingly cool lead work, makes this one of the highlights of the record. The Was continues in the same way with Jocke’s twisted croaks and chopping guitar-riffs. Way To Shine is the only song on the album close to being mid-paced, and is a nice finisher. Imagine Colony/Clayman-era In Flames, with those comfortable clean guitars and the sudden bursts into heaviness, and again great lead-work.

As much as I seem to like this, I’m glad that it isn’t longer than it is. If this had been a 60-minuter I would’ve dropped out after the first thirty. Their occasional dips into boredom are maybe more than enough to put a less patient listener off. Although this isn’t the breath of fresh air this scene so desperately needs, it’s definitely not bad and all in all a pretty enjoyable listen which occasionally takes you back in time to the glory days. Recommended for those who know their taste, and also for those who likes their music brutal yet melodic, and not an overload of either.