So, these German progressive metallers have been at it for over 15 years already? How time flies! What I would like to talk about on these pages is their first output, Colour Temple. The album that had me follow their career ever since!
Vanden Plas play a melodic brand of progressive metal. So they are more Threshold than Dream Theater. All they do has to fit the boundaries of a song. Melodies are obviously important, and musical muscle are only used when it adds to the total picture. That does not mean this is a lightweight band. No, guitar riffs are heavy, as are the drums. Keyboards play an important role as well, adding lots of colour with clever arrangements, often balancing the others.
Opening with suspense classic violins before the band kicks in with the superb Father, which sucks you in with all the trademarks I mentioned in the previous paragraph. Push proves a fierce rocker, with many shredding guitar parts. When The Wind Blows opens gently and takes a while before building into a mid paced rocker where the opening sequences return to add dark to the light. And all choruses so far are catchy, with convincing delivery. I could go on about the 9 tracks forming the almost hour of music on this disk. But I will rest my case with saying that in case you missed about one of the best German progressive metal bands in the market, it is not too late to catch up. This, and every album since, is worth spending your hard earned cash on!
I can not thank you adequately for the posts on your web site. I know you’d put a lot of time and effort into them and hope you know how much I appreciate it. I hope I’ll do exactly the same for someone else at some point.