Artist: Vision Devine 
   Title: 9 Degrees West Of The Moon
   Label: Frontiers Records

Originally seen as a solo project to his work with Labyrinth, Olaf Thorsens’ Vision Divine has grown into an entity all of it's own, and when in 1999 he left Labyrinth he continued on with the Vision Divine project and set about creating a full time band for it.  Now in 2009 he returns with the bands latest and most powerful album ‘9 Degrees West Of The Moon’.

The band has changed somewhat since the last album with new members Alessio Lucatti on keyboards, Cristiano Bertocchi (ex-Labyrinth) on bass, Federico Puleri on guitar and Alessandro Bissa on drums and we returning to the fold once again, vocalist Fabio Lione (ex-Labyrinth and current Rhapsody front man), thus completing this new line-up. 

The album also sees the return of Timo Tolki handling production duties and with this new improved line-up, he has managed to really bring out the best in the Vision Divine sound and given it a symphonic metal feel without losing any of Thorsen’s original dream. 

The album opens up in emphatic style with the epic ‘Letter To My Child Never Born’, a real grandiose power driven piece that simply ignites the fuse of the tracks to come, with Lione’s vocals bringing everything together beautifully and showcasing the bands maturity in sound from their original self-titled debut. The mix of traditional metal and sublime orchestrations sway from the aggressive sound to the more gentle soundings, all going to make this the perfect opener.

Then things really start taking shape with the fantastic ‘Violent Loneliness’, a real thumping power metal track that Lione makes his own with some quite astounding towering vocals.  Add in the mix of keys and some mighty fine guitar work from Thorsen, plus some haunting backing vocals and this song goes down as one of my favourite tracks off the album.

The mammoth symphonic metal continues with ‘Fading Shadow’, this one is a real heavy step forward for the album with the bass and drums making themselves more of an oppressing force, rather than just a rear guard attack, and once again Lione vocals are just magnificent. 

The album takes a step down in tempo with the more gentle refrain that is ‘Angels In Disguise’, but fear not, the mix of orchestra and metal are still present but just far enough in the mix not to detract from Lione’s fine almost operatic vocal.

Then there’s ‘The Killing Speed Of Time’, as you can probably tell from the title things are turned up a notch or two with this one.  This is as METAL as it gets on the album, with a far more aggressive vocal and heavier guitar, this one reminds me very much of Pagan Mind’s last album with its thumping bass and streaming guitar.

It’s a return to the more symphonic sounds with the guitar rich sound of ‘The Streets Of Laudomia’ and the fantastic rocking ‘Fly’, before things slow down a touch with ‘Out In Open Space’, a track that is all about Thorsen’s guitars as he excels on this one. 

‘9 Degrees West Of The Moon’ starts off with a gentle chime and Lione's vocal before slowly the keyboards and drums bring a whole new atmosphere to the song.  Then the haunting narration of a child followed by another keyboard bridge lead into a crescendo of power driven guitars and drums, with massively over indulgent keyboards as the track blasts out of the speakers, before Lione brings it to a close with a gentle vocal, great stuff!

It's bricks and mortar metal with the fantastic title cover of Judas Priests ‘Touch Of Evil’.  This track Vision Divine make their own and one that brings this metal masterpiece right up to date, as well as adding a little extra to proceedings along the way. 

The album closes with a special bonus track of the demo version of ‘Fading Shadow’, which rounds off a great album that will surely put these Italian Metallers in the forefront of the Power/Symphonic Genre in 2009. 

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