When you hear the phrase "Cheesy Power Metal", immediately bands like Manowar, Hammerfall and Lost Horizon come to mind. You know the type....bands singing about metal, the glory of metal, fighting for metal, dying for metal etc., etc. Even bands like Gamma Ray "sail the seas of cheese" once in a while. Sweden's Dream Evil has always delivered true heavy metal in its purest form from their exciting Dragonslayer debut through and including albums like Evilized, United and their magnum opus The Book Of Heavy Metal. However, there always has been a certain cheesiness to the sound and style of Dream Evil as well but with this new album In the Night, the "cheese" factor has been deliberately boosted. With the band members now adopting new monikers for themselves, its obvious that unlike other true metal bands, these guys don't take themselves too seriously and in fact have a little fun with an album that borders on being a parody of the whole genre.

In comfort to long time Dream Evil fans, the band has not abandoned their crushing heavy yet very melodic sound; its just that a few of the lyrical phrases are almost laughable. Founding members guitarist Fredrik Nordstrom, vocalist Niklas Isfeldt and bassist Peter Stalfors along with David Varghamm, guitar and Patrik Jerksten, drums have managed once again to create an album chocked full of very muscular sounding power metal that begins with Immortal, a crushing heavy song that wanders firmly into Manowar territory. The extended acapella chorus at the end of the song goes on a bit too long for what is otherwise a solid track. Things continue with the thundering heavy title track In The Night complete with double bass flurries and Halford like screams from Niklas Isfeldt. Both Judas Priest and Accept influences dominate yet another in long line of metal anthems with Bang Your Head. Things take a turn towards the more melodic side with tracks like the Scorpions-like See The Light and the Hammerfall tinged On The Wind and In The Fires Of The Sun, a track that has lots of melodic guitar fills and a very strong chorus. The obligatory power ballad is included here and its given the unique title of The Ballad. Despite the title and the hilarity of the track complete with an opening piano line and lyrics claiming "We are made of metal...", this is actually a very well done song with a strong soaring chorus and great vocal melodies. Other tracks like Mean Machine and Kill, Burn, Be Evil offer galloping heaviness and a very muscular overall tone but with a fair share of filler. The song writing formula and arrangements are very similar for the most part yet the album closer The Unchosen One uses a big orchestrated sound and a big melodic chorus in similarity to tracks like Hammerfall's Glory To The Brave.

Fredrik Nordstrom has delivered another solid slab of metal here with a huge and heavy production, a mix of slicing and muted power chord laden metal riffs and the always-strong vocals of Niklas Isfeldt. This is not their best effort and does have a few average tracks but there's enough here to satisfy power metal fans and especially fans of the band. Remember not to take all this too seriously as the band themselves certainly aren't and seem to have a lot of fun with this. It's been 4 years since their last album United was released and with In The Night, they must have been waiting for the "cheese" to ripen before unleashing it. It's a big holiday platter of cheesy power metal served up for us all. Pass the Havarti and Jalapeno will ya....