"Visions"
is Ian Perry's first solo album for more than a decade, and once more,
just like on his highly acclaimed Consortium Project he has been working
with some well known artists on this album. Casey Grillo (Kamelot) is
taking care of the drums on some tracks, Stephan & Andres Lill
(Vanden Plas) is taking care of some rhythm & lead guitars and drums
respectively, Ivar de Graaf (Within Temptation) is also taking care of
some the drumming, some of his partners in crime from the Consortium
Project is also helping out here. So
the foundation is in order, and with Ian's background from Elegy and
Consortium Project this album is a nice fusion of his strong roots in
both power metal and hard rock. Producing and arranging the whole thing
by him self, he shows confidence in his music and song writing skills,
and with good reason! Basically
this album covers everything Ian has been involved in for the past 20
years or so, from straight forward hard rock songs thru power metal
stuff, with a few journeys into symphonic and progressive metal
territory. So if you are familiar with his previous work, then you will
sure like this one as well... I actually prefers this one to the last
Consortium Project, can't say exactly why, maybe it's because this one
is more basic and back to the roots kind of music... My
favorite song on this album is clearly ""Loving' a Stranger"
with it's middle-eastern influences, nice rhythm and lovely female
background vocals as well as shared male and female vocal lines, a thing
that shows up more than once on this album - and with great success I
might add. The
more mellow stuff like "Slip Away" and "No Man's
Land" belongs among the best moments on this album, as well as the
very strong and hard opener "Innocent Minds", but no worries,
this album features 11 good songs, which should appeal to most open
minded metal fans... Recommended tracks:
"Innocent Minds", "Slip Away", "Lovin' a
Stranger" & "No Man's Land". |
