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At Vance is one of those lesser-known european power metal bands that pop out from nowhere faster than anyone can count. The problem with these bands is usually the simple thing that they tend to have an almost identical sound and almost identical songs, in fact if you'd randomly pick songs from a few of them and mix them on one album, you might well be able to fool someone that they're all from the same band... Luckily, At Vance is not a bad band and belongs easily amongst the better ones of the aforementioned euro-power group. Their previous release "Only Human" was such an enjoyable album that when I spotted this new one on the record store shelves I didn't need to hesitate to pick it up. Like many other bands of the genre, At Vance is based around a songwriting guitarist, in this case a guy called Olaf Lenk who is responsible of writing all the songs all by himself - even though some help, especially in the lyrics department wouldn't have hurted. As Lenk also plays the keyboards, the rest of the band consists of the rhythm section (Sascha Feldmann (b), Jürgen Lucas (dr) and Rainald König (rhythm guitar) ). Band's previous singer and co-songwriter Oliver Hartmann is out and his place as vocalists has gone to a swede Mats Leven, who proves to be an adequate replacement. Lenk proves to be a worthy guitarist having obvious influences from legendary axemen like Yngwie Malmsteen or Ritchie Blackmore. Mats Leven fits very well to these kinds of songs as well, he's got a very good - a bit coarse - voice that is very enjoyable to listen but judging by this album his vocal range isn't very wide - the few places where he goes for a scream left me hoping for a singer capable of more high-pitched talents. The album itself does after all fall
under the category of being "an usual" power metal album.
It doesn't mean that there aren't good songs or that the album would
stink, but this is nothing that we haven't heard before. The song structures
follow the basic power metal "rules" and basically consist
of common balancing between verses and chorus and then going for a solo.
My favourite songs are the opening track "Fallen Angel" (that sums very well up what the album is all about: very good but still-so-basic power metal), "Broken Vow" with it's wild guitars, "The Evil In You", a heavy mid tempo song reminding me of certain stuff from Axel Rudi Pell or Dio, and "Princess Of Ice", the album closer featuring some Kamelot-style keys. The special edition of the album has an additional CD with three tracks featuring Oliver Hartmann on vocals, it's a good bonus and the two of those songs, written by him, show a bit different sound, that mixed with Lenk's compositions might've spiced up the actual album. Giving the points for this one isn't easy. I do enjoy listening to it a lot but at the same time I feel these guys should've come up with something that would've separated them from the masses if only a bit. From song structures to too-close-to-clichés lyrics (just look at the song titles, yawn...) this is all too... familiar. I miss the insanely wild "Witches Dance" that was on their last album...
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Captain Scurvy / June 2003 |
