Vanden Plas is a German progressive metal band founded in the mid-1980s and releasing the first album in 1994. Since then the band has the same line-up which consists of Stephen Lill on guitars, his brother Andreas Lill on drums, Torsten Reichert on bass, Andy Kuntz on vocals, and Günter Werno on keyboards. Vanden Plas can be referred to as "German Dream Theater", but I do think their sound has always been less complex than the american counterparts and Vanden Plas are actually more theatrical. The band has always combined the heavy riffs from S. Lill with the magical keys from Werno and quite often orchestrations. Kuntz vocals are on the high pitched end but never over-the-top. All of that over a very solid rhythmic foundation. This formula has led the band to release 8 studio albums which are all very consistent in quality. The last album was released in two parts. The last Chronicles of the Immortals: Netherworld II was released in 2015 and the band hasn't been on tour since 2017.
Now the quintet is back with the ninth studio album, The Ghost Xperiment – Awakening which is part one of a two part concept album, with the second part Illumination to be released in 2020. The last two part album was highly theatrical with shorter songs, narrations and full of orchestrations. Awakening is a return to the roots while not loosing their evolution of the last years. Awakening is heavier and uses less orchestrations (albeit still there) but it's also slightly more progressive with mostly long songs. All in all, they are truthful to their trademark sound where progressive heaviness meets melody. Those points can be noticed already with the opening notes of the album, "Cold December Night" starts with a heavy guitar riff tone followed by a groovy drum beat. I’m positively surprised how great the drumming is throughout the album (but take "Devils' Poetry" as a fine example ). I also love the guitar work, it’s heavy on the riffs and the solos are great while not overdone. Now the most important thing is how all instruments work so well together, the arrangements are just great. I like when at moments the guitar goes into the background and the bass and keys can also shine. While there’s nothing to really to complain about The Ghost Xperiment - Awakening, somehow I was expecting more. Maybe more epic and catchy choruses? Like I feel that the song "Fall from the Skies" is great but the vocal melody in the chorus is a bit of a letdown. Or maybe what I missed was a really stand out song to blow me away. For now, I didn’t get that, but it could still come with repeated listens.
Those minor observations aside, Vanden Plas did it again, the band has no bad records in their 25-year old discography and Awakening is not changing that accomplishment. Old fans will dig this and for new ones this is as good as any Vanden Plas album. The band and musicians individually are highly underrated and this band should be getting much more attention from prog critics and fans.
SCORE: 82/100
DR: 7
Genre: Progressive Metal
Released by Frontiers Records on October 11th, 2019
Follow BeMetalaways Spotify Playlist with upcoming metal releases
No comments:
Post a Comment