Vanden Plas
Far Off Grace

THE REVIEW

Vanden Plas is a German quintet dedicated to progressive metal. The album in question is their third of the six released so far, to which must be added a seventh acoustic work as well as an eighth live album. The band primarily draws inspiration from the flag bearers Dream Theater, secondly from those who first coined the progressive metal hybrid, namely Rush and Kansas, thirdly also from other forefathers of somehow romantic and aesthetic metal, for example Dokken and gradually Iron Maiden, Thin Lizzy... slipping towards Yes, Genesis, etc., up to the Beatles, whose primordial influence never hurts... one needs to play at least black metal not to find them as inspirers...

Compared to the primary reference constituted by the Dream Theater, the five from Kaiserslautern are less intricate and boastful (and that's saying something). They tend to extend their songs, but rarely beyond six or seven minutes. Given the genre, the group's four instrumentalists are quite alert and skilled on their instruments, and it couldn't be otherwise, but there is quite a focus on essentials here, read melodies and harmonic progressions of quality (established by the necessary interest of the listener in the pompous and Wagnerian side of hard rock).

The singer especially, whose real name is Andy Kuntz, is much more convincing than the just convincing and quite out of context James Labrie, the Canadian who found fame with the Theater. Especially in slow ballads, when the games are mainly led by the lush piano of Günther Werno, his passionate expressiveness and harmonic richness come out splendidly. This is the case in the sixth track "I Don't Miss You" where the poignant nostalgia of the lyrics is amplified by genuine involvement and conviction, as well as by a sublime timbre.

The longer-haired guitarist Stephan Lill is responsible for composing the more intricate episodes, a condensation of eighties guitarism but without overdoing it. The lineup is completed by his brother Andreas (who instead sports a crew cut) on drums and bassist Torsten Reichert, the stern-looking and tattooed guy on the cover.

Truly original German bands are quite different... these guys are entirely derivative but very intense and skilled; more skilled than their masters, at least from the point of view of sense of proportion and good taste.