VANDEN PLAS The Ghost Xperiment - Illumination | Weekly Heavy Metal Album Review

 

Released by Frontiers Records on December 4th, 2020

Quick Background

Vanden Plas is a German progressive metal band founded in the mid-1980s. Their first full length studio Colour Temple was released in 1994. Since then they have released 8 more albums with the same line-up. Vanden Plas is the German reaction to Dream Theater. The band incorporates elements of progressive metal and rock opera, keyboards, layers and specialize in longer songs. 

I'm a long time fan of the band and have enjoyed most of their albums. They are not as exaggerated as Dream Theater, vocals are more contained, solos are not that long or show off. That despite the songs being mid to long range but rarely going over the 10-min mark. In the last 15 years or so, they have moved more into big and theatrical concept albums. The song "Rainmaker" from 1997's The God Thing is my favorite song and the one that got me into the band in the first place. Christ 0 is probably my favorite record. While I enjoyed the last 3 records of this new phase, I still hold my heart to the earlier stuff. The previous record released only last year The Ghost Xperiment - Awakening is my favorite of the last three. So I am looking forward to see what part II will bring us.

The Ghost Xperiment - Illumination

About a year ago, Vanden Plas delivered the part one, entitled Awakening, of their two part concept album, The Ghost Xperiment. Now comes the dramatic conclusion of the story with their new album, The Ghost Xperiment - Illumination. It is also their 10th studio album and features 7 new tracks running a total time of 56 minutes. 

While the orchestral arrangements in the first album in the saga had been reduced compared to the two previous "Chronicles of the Immortals" series, this time the progressive aspects of the band’s sound are even more apparent. My overall impression is that this their back to the roots album. It pleasantly takes me back to The God Thing (1997), Christ 0 (2006) and The Seraphic Clockwork (2010). It's a heavy and guitar driven record, I mean how heavy is that instrumental interlude after the second chorus of the opening track "When the World is Falling Down"? And the drumming at the end of this song, beautiful! Then the guitar riffs on "Fatal Arcadia" are a mix of their old albums with Dream Theater from the early 2000's (e.g. Train of Thought). The song even bring some harsh vocals to the mix. 

The guitar being a highlight doesn't mean that the magic keyboards of Mr. Werno are at second place. There are plenty of solos and passages to prove that, take for example "The Lonely Psychogon" fantastic keyboard work and a solo twin with the guitar that's just great. In sum, as always the musicianship is brilliant. Stephan Lill (Guitar), Günter Werno (Keyboards), Andreas Lill (Drums), and Torsten Reichert (Bass) deliver the goods without suffocating us with unnecessary instrumental fillers. The album once again sees a solid performance from singer and lyricist Andy Kuntz and it is full of big epic choruses supported by a backing vocals team including Oliver Hartmann from Avantasia and Herbie Langhans from Firewind. This is all over the album, but a perfect example is the soon-to-be live favorite "Under the Horizon". 

"Black Waltz Death" is the most symphonic song on the album but as it is an 8-minute long song half way through it, the song gets heavier featuring the best guitar solo of the album. "The Ouroboros" one of their longest songs ever and it's fantastic. Many ups and downs and really good hooks. The album closes with the shortest track "Ghost Engineers", a soft and slow paced song to send us away knowing we just finished a fantastic musical journey and story.

The Picky Guy

I don't have a lot to complain here. I just feel that the vocal melodies are not always straightforward and catchy and it takes a lot of spins to really get into them. So I do hope people have the willingness to stay with the album for long enough to get hooked like I did.

Wrap Up Opinion 

Overall, Vanden Plas surprised me with their best record in more than a decade. Part one of this story was already very good, but this is even better. The Ghost Xperiment - Illumination proves again that VP is an underrated band continuing their own unique path. This is another glorious work that brings up their roots and influences while moving the band forward. "The Ghost Xperiment - Illumination" is a must have for any prog metal fans. A very good albums that I'm giving a solid 85 out of 100.   

SCORE: 85/100

Genre: Progressive Metal

Released by Frontiers Records on December 4th, 2020

Rating System*

99 - 100 Perfect
94 - 98 Excellent
87 - 93 Great
82 - 86 Very Good
77 - 81 Good
66 - 76 Mixed
58 - 65 Bad

* slightly adapted on May 24th, 2020 due to statistical review
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