Band:	Van Canto
Album:	Tribe Of Force
Style:	A Cappella, Power metal
Release date:	February 24, 2010
Guest review by:	Milena

Disc I [CD]
01. Lost Forever
02. To Sing A Metal Song
03. One To Ten [feat. Victor Smolski]
04. I Am Human
05. My Voice
06. Rebellion [Grave Digger cover] [feat. Chris Boltendahl]
07. Last Night Of The Kings
08. Tribe Of Force
09. Water. Fire. Heaven. Earth.
10. Master Of Puppets [Metallica cover]
11. Magic Taborea
12. Hearted [feat. Tony Kakko]
13. Frodo's Dream

Disc II [DVD] [limited deluxe edition bonus] [Live at Wacken 2008]
01. Pathfinder
02. Kings Of Metal [Manowar cover]
03. Rain
04. The Bard's Song - In The Forest [Blind Guardian cover]
05. The Mission
06. Fear Of The Dark [Iron Maiden cover]
07. Battery [Metallica cover]
+ Behind The Scenes

Tribe Of Force is the third and the best Van Canto album to date. Why the ridiculously high grade for a gimmick band, you might ask? Because, sir/lady, this is by no means a gimmick band, and if you feel that way, the track "To Sing A Metal Song" is pointed at you. They've written some high quality songs, covered a couple of anthems, brought on some mighty guests and made it very clear that they're serious about themselves.

This album has a lot fewer covers than the previous one, but they're dear to fans. "Rebellion" features vocals from Chris Boltendahl and is pretty awesome, but "Master Of Puppets" is the best Van Canto cover to date. I can't stop singing (yep, singing!) the intro for weeks.

What's special about this effort is the quality of songwriting. Van Canto pretty much puts the "power" in "power metal," making you feel pumped and good about yourself. "Oh, come on, any power metal can do that for me when I'm in a cheesy mood!" you may say and be absolutely right, but these guys can do that for me even when I'm in the most skeptic of moods. There's a great number of awesome songs ("Lost Forever" and "Tribe Of Force" are everyone's favorites), but my personal favorite is nested between the album's two "comfort" songs - yep, you guessed it, it's "Hearted." It is a marvelous metal opera clocking somewhere under five minutes (if I'm not mistaken), and they've brought Tony Kakko to be one of the protagonists.

The arrangements are more clever and innovative than ever, and the singers have worked their asses off to make them sound great. Inga Scharf once again proves to me that women can be awesomely good metal singers (I don't really like female-fronted metal). Her male companion Dennis P. Schunke is nothing like the power metal stereotype and can give singing lessons to 70% of singers of his scene. Not only is he gifted with a voice of great power and warmth, he's also very disciplined in using it.

So, there you have it. Until they release another album, I'm playing Tribe Of Force blasted up to 666. Rakkatakka, motherfu*kers!