Van Canto - A Storm To Come review
Band: | Van Canto |
Album: | A Storm To Come |
Release date: | December 2006 |
01. Stora Rövardansen
02. King
03. The Mission
04. Lifetime
05. Rain
06. She's Alive
07. I Stand Alone
08. Starlight
09. Battery [Metallica cover]
+ The Mission [bonus] [video]
+ Battery [Metallica cover] [bonus] [video]
You will never have heard anything like this in your metal lives before, this is one of those special releases that comes along with something totally different and blows your head off. A cappella is something usually totally alien to listeners of metal, but here we have it - probably the first ever a cappella metal band like this. Yes, a band with five singers and one drummer, three of them singing through guitar amplifier stacks imitating guitars accompanied by thundering, typical power metal style drumming that still provides a very metal experience.
The album starts off with "Stora Rövardansen" that sounds more like something you might hear from the Lion King soundtrack, but I am not far off. It is actually originally from the soundtrack of a film called "Ronja, The Robber's Daughter" and composed by a man called Björn Isfält, but after this and until the last track of the album, it is all original music written by the band. "King" kicks off the album properly with its lovely power metal gallop and already at this point you can hear the magnificent singing of the four male singers and one female singer that are constantly changing and giving you something different to put your attention to. "The Mission" carries the album on and the five layers of vocals continue to impress as they do throughout the entire album with lead vocals both male and female on top of the deeper vocals making the sounds of what would be guitars in any other band.
Included on the album we have varied songs, we have the gloriously fast paced "Lifetime" and also the slower, ballad like "I Stand Alone" that solidified the belief that we have some very talented singers here, not just to sing these vocal parts but also to arrange these songs with all of their layers as well. Curious individuals pondering over the issue of what-would-be guitar solos can listen to "Rain" and "Starlight" that include quite bizarre yet rather alluring solos, of course all still strictly vocal work. A cover of Metallica's "Battery" closes the album with ingenious creativity; there is no other way to describe how you can turn such a metal classic into an a cappella metal classic then just magic. You need to hear it yourself to believe it is possible.
This album's originality and amazing talents that have gone into this album kept me smiling and even laughing throughout I found it so majestic in its at first seemingly unfathomable originality and ingenuity of the human voice. The whole gimmick of course doesn't stay as fresh as the first time you listen through the album but even after you have gotten over the fact that there is nothing more then vocals and drums here, the experience is still one of hearing an extremely catchy and melodic metal album. No one can claim this is some kind of joke, although they have had much fun creating this opus of vocal work and the band lacks arguably the most important or certainly iconic part of a metal band, the guitar, this is a serious collection of songs and I can only begin to imagine how much hard work has gone into each one.
This is such a unique album emitting a master class of oratory talents coupled with the drums that create a must hear for anyone interested in melodic metal, and anyone interested in anything different and original because this piece of work ticks every box when it comes to doing what music should do - pleasure and entertain you as much as possible.
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