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Artist: Visions Of Atlantis |
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Well it's
finally here, it may be four years since Austrian Symphonic Metallers
Visions Of Atlantis’s last album ‘Trinity’, but the band are back
and have put the past few years of band turmoil behind them and put all
efforts in producing what is their finest album to date. The
band set out in 2000 to bring an air of majesty to the Metal world and
succeeded with their debut full length album ‘Eternal Endless Infinity'. This was followed by
the equally impressive ‘Castaway, which saw the band bring in male
vocal force Mario Plank to add a heavier vibe to proceedings, followed
up by the mighty ‘Trinity’. The bands fourth album was set
back by the departure of singer Melissa Ferlaak, although the song
writing for the album continued while the search for a new female
vocalist went on. So when the band came upon Greek native Maxi Nil
nearly three years had passed and both the album and songs were
complete, needing only a few tweaks here and there to accommodate Nils
vocal style. And so in 2011 Visions of Atlantis return with the
stunning ‘Delta’. From the opening two tracks you can tell what a find Nils is and what a
different vocalist she is from Ferlaak. Yes they are two
tremendous vocal talents but each at different ends of the Metal
spectrum, as Ferlaak was more operatic in style, whereas Nils has a more
traditional metal vocal style that fits more with the direction the band
are going and is the beauty to Plank’s beast. Things get off to a phenomenal start with ‘Black River Delta’.
No intro’s, no messing about, it's straight into the full on Metal
assault, which instantly brings out the best in Nils, as she shows she
has the ammunition vocally to keep up with the more guitar orientated
sound that the band have developed for this album, with Werner Fiedler
firing on all six throughout album,. Also there is more
orchestration on this album than previous albums and this fits into the
whole symphonic tone of the genre. It's all switch for the next song ‘Memento’. Like I said
earlier, Nils has a great vocal range and this in brought into the light
of day with this song. A more gentle vocal style wrapped around a
Film Score Metal vibe, with a towering vocal from Plank that is the
perfect accompaniment to the stunning vocals of Nils. It's back to the full on Symphonic Metal with the driven ‘New Dawn’,
again a stunning duet between Nils and Plank which is wrapped around a
thumping rhythm section from Mario Lockert on the bass and tub thumper
Thomas Caser. Helping to cement it all together is Martin Harb’s
soar away orchestral keyboards on this the shortest track on the album
but one of the most impressive in my book. The rapid pace is kept up with the excellent ‘Where Daylight Falls’
before the superb Film Score Metal of ‘Conquest Of Others’.
This starts off with explosions and all guns blazing as it tells of the
destruction, devastation and futility of the name of War and with
Plank’s angst filled vocals adding that extra menace to proceedings,
this is the darkest and heaviest piece on the album. I suppose the
subject matter doesn’t lend itself to glamour and joy nor should it. Keeping things going again and bringing a lot more of that orchestral
vibe in that has been a dominant feature on this album (and long may it
continue), is the mellower ‘Twist Of Fate’. Mellower yes, but
still having that vein of power metal running through it so as not to
lose its Metal edge. For those who liked that heavier edge of ‘Conquest of Others’ and
that metal ballad like tone of 'Memento', then ‘Elegy of Existence’
brings the elements of those two together in one tight metal package, as
Plank lays down that aggressive metal vocal. Nils comes back at
him with a quite stunning reprise, but for me Nils really comes into her
own is on ‘Reflection’, a real haunting vocal that is capturing in
its essence on this stunning metal ballad. |
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Tracklisting: 1.
Black River Delta |
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