Hey guys! My name is Taylor Dread, I’m a sojourning artist, I know you’ll love my heavy metal, it’s true school for fans of Priest and Maiden.
Dread Taylor
Couldn’t think of a better curtain lifter, than how the author of the music we’re about to review introduces himself. Seems he is involved in many other genres, ran own formation back in time, named after him – DREAD, out putting two long-play albums, according to The Metal Archives. Intrigued by the statements made and with almost zero data to be found online about this persona, let us dive in deeper in what he has to offer. After all, giving publicity to little known creators, adhering to the metal movement is the true power of our community and something the people running this website are particularly good at.
REVIEW
What we have as a material provided by mister TAYLOR DREAD, comprises of his 2018 EP under the name of “Breakout”, joined by the recently released 2024 single “The sleep of the last breath”. Five tracks in total to get us in the frame of a creator, who you will not probably encounter in your local record store (as much as those still exist today). Pounding in is the opening and title track “Breakout” and by “pounding” I really mean it literally – it’s a shredding main riff intro with rhythmic drum banging, vocals storming from the 5th second on, an all-in-one power-up package and a bold statement on what’s about to follow.
Half a minute deep, the track really breaks out in full potential and even for an untrained ear its crystalline obvious that what we have here is a song upholstered in a MAIDEN-esque fabric from the well-aged “Brave New World” vintage, almost exact replica of the real thing, following every ingredient in the recipe of success. Immediately my mischievous demeanour puts an evil plan to play this on some metal party, claiming it’s an upcoming IRON MAIDEN material that accidentally leaked out on the web.
Curious to see how many people will fall for this folly and Mr. Taylor crafted it well enough to qualify for the real deal. And when it comes to his vocal delivery, he is by far one of the most prolific Dickinson disciples I came across lately. Rewind and re-play the bridge of “Breakout” to assess are you co-signing this or have different take on it.
“Redemption Lies” carries on the torch of expression and within the massive almost 7 minutes of duration, we find an entire mini-universe of swirling ideas, clashing moods and colliding influences. Similar pounding, yet slow motion intro, much like a rehearsal warm-up jamming takes us smoothly to what’s going to be a riffage remotely resembling the main theme of “In my darkest hour” by thrashing titans MEGADETH.
In contrast to the opening piece, here the vocals enter the stage exactly a minute and a half of the composition, keeping common stylistic with its predecessor. Although here we face more melodious delivery, which boldly dominates over the instrumental part, without being too pushed to the front. Love this beautiful balance, that could also be explained with the production style of the recording and keeps the listeners engaged, even paying attention to the lyrical part, a thing that often goes dismissed in the barrage of “chewed and spit” wording.
Already reaching four minutes and a half of artistic confession, when a short drum and cymbal break heralds the entry of the much-anticipated guitar solo, piercing the ears from the very first note and moving on with enhanced complexity, while the rhythm section below knows no rest. Nothing fancy, nor extravagant, however demonstrating formidable technical capabilities for exactly two minutes, in practice closing the song, without ever returning again to any verse or chorus.
Steadily we traverse to the second part of this record, straight into “Lost Souls Avenue”, that welcomes us with a short bombastic intro, before Taylor storms in with complete changed vox demeanour – high pitched, pacy, stepping bit back in comparison to the two tracks before. Well…this appears to be a short-lived effect, simply because all falls into place several lines after and we find ourselves in the same familiar waters. This equally concerns the “look and feel” of the song, overflowing with Iron Maiden adoption of elements, being the bass that delivers most of the guilty pleasure this time.
The high singing strikes back at the second verse, clearly a well-designed pattern, that could be considered the main differentiator from the opening song, both being creatures from the same breed. Put the bridge in that account too and we end up with both continuity and diversity in hand. Just before we say farewell to the avenue of lost souls, the closing drumming bravado leaves no doubt for something being forged under the omnipotent inspiration of Mr.Nicko” McBrain.
Final track four – “Until Again” lowers the beat with relaxing acoustic overture, as it should be for a proper rock ballad. Naturally, a soft, mellow singing comes along, delivering hard evidence about the wide range of vocal capabilities of the author. To take it further, the first third of the song develops as a classic acoustic guitar chant, the type that make girls give that look to long hair dudes on high-school parties or around the camp fire.
Portion of overdrive energy is injected around the verses to drop back again in the comfortable bed of romantic lament. When things are just about to get cheesy, the cavalry arrives in the form of well-structured solo, randomly fuelled with ecstatic drumming to sudden terminate all with a bang! Looking at the times – its six minutes in total, for something record labels would prefer to be squeezed in half the time.
Moving forward to present days and to top up what we have witnesses so far, lets concentrate on the freshly released 2024 single – THE SLEEP OF LAST BREATH. A solid 8-minuter, the first thing you notice about is the way denser and solid sound of the production, compared to the BREAKOUT recording. Nasty surprise, if you ask me, and it gets nicer with that catchy and thrashy opening riff, to set tone and make me slightly headbang while the intro lasts. It takes only a minute till the speed charge and, yeah baby, this is what we’re talking about! METALLICA marries SLAYER in what’s about to follow, refracted through a modern-day prism, while the voice of Mr. Taylor makes it count for a genuine creation of 21st century metal work. At this point I am overwhelmed and reassured the author took the time between 2018 and now to perfect his craft, enrich the composition style and become bolder in amalgamating several styles into a sharp blade.
“The Sleep Of Last Breath” is a multi-level, multi-faceted face-melter, bringing together powerful speed and thrash forces back from the 80-ties as if the author was aiming to create an almanac of an era that set mark to all of us to this day. Halving the track, we find some of those high-pitched vocal lines to pump in and I was sure this was the start of the guitar solo. Short, but nonetheless eclectic, served as a bridge to the last verse, gradually building momentum towards the glamorous ending. What a banger!!!
CONCLUSION:
Having to review a diverse material like this, coming from purely underground “lone wolf” creator, often is a double-edged sword, I was thrilled to be pinched by. The exotic fusion of mystical past and sudden comeback, spiced by the story of continuous personal and artistic struggle made me pay close attention. It was totally worth it. Acknowledging the obvious classic metal influences, which the author himself openly professes as a tribute to the deities of heavy music, there is something deeply personal in all these tracks, that makes them unique and helps escape the cliché. All respect to Mr. Taylor for standing tall and keeping the flag high, putting his name, blood, sweat and tears behind the strong belief in the classic metal way.
His talent as a composer and instrumentalist has to reach wider audience and serve as an example of relentless chase of a dream. Back to the recordings, those come diligently produced and mastered, having in mind they were never meant to comprise an album. While “Until Again” was a bit of a pushover and felt somehow out of place, “The Sleep Of Last Breath” totally tied the score and even took the lead in the table of impressions. We’ll continue tracking how this venture carries on down the road and no wonder the next review we have under that name to be one of a full-length album.
TheNwothm Score: 7,5/10
The Nwothm 
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