Why
can't the Dutch soccer teams compete anymore with the clubs abroad? Well,
because every talent is sold to a foreign club and every year the Dutch clubs
need to start with an almost complete new team again. No automatism anymore and
you need to start building a team again from scratch. I hear you think
what has this to do with the German band Vanden Plas? Well, I found their 1997
album 'The God Thing' on a dusty shelf (yeah yeah, I need to get a housekeeper)
and I was surprised that they still have the same line-up! That definitely
proved to me that such an excellent album like this new 'Chronicles of the
Immortals' is the
outcome of consistency.
I
wrote in my Appearance of Nothing review that I doubted if there would be a
better progressive release this year... Within 2 weeks I have to get back on
that remark and I need to tell you that this is even a better release. There is
a big concept behind this album and if you are interested in that part, you will
find enough about it on the internet. In short you can say that Vanden Plas
turned a theatre piece into a metal album and that can be heard because of the
opera and big orchestral parts. One thing is for sure, there will be a
second album of this concept next year and if the music is as good, I'm already
looking forward to it.
There are several things, which make this an excellent album. At first there is
Andy Kuntz, his singing is heavenly again and he sees to it that this really is
a top album. In several songs he is accompanied by nice female vocals. The music
is heavy at times and emotionally and touching when needed. Beautiful piano
parts, big orchestrations followed by heavy dark guitar riffs, a sporadic (child)
choir and this all excellently balanced in well written songs. In the heavy
parts the album sounds dark and heavy because of the low tuned guitars and that
sticks to the concept story. Every member playing on the album is skilled to the
bone and the mix of the album is complete. If you need an impression of what to
expect, I advice you to listen to the third track; "The Godmaker", which can
seen below. If you dig that, you will love the entire album.
After every spin I aprreciate the album more and more. If you are into
progressive metal and need an album that you will still be playing after a few
months, you need to pick this one up. This has to be this site's album of the
month, but to make it the album of the month I need to give them a 99 rating
because a colleague of mine already rewarded a black metal band with 98...
I need some room to give an even better album this year a higher rating, so I
can't reward them with more than the above.
