This is the tenth studio album from these German Prog metallers. I first got into these guys through their first album The Colour Temple. Their second album, The God Thing, is an absolute masterpiece of the genre. This album is actually part 2 of the Ghost Xperiment concept. So for those of you not familiar with Vanden Plas – think Dream Theater in their more basic moments, with a huge fat guitar sound and great melodies.
First track, When The World Is Falling Down, is a great opener with a huge riff and a great vocal from the unfortunately named Mr Kuntz…Under The Horizon is next, and is more of the same – a great opening side. Black Waltz Death starts Side 2 in a mellow mood – with a nice acoustic intro that turns into a great power ballad with a cool solo section. The Lonely Psychogon closes out the first disc with another fat beast of a riff with a cool heavy groove. Great song!
On to Disc 2, and the epic Fatal Arcadia, which is very Dream Theater Train of Thought era. Ever since the second album (the aforementioned, The God Thing) the band have not been able to shake the DT comparisons, and when you listen to this tune you can understand why. It’s not a bad thing, may I add, as they do it really well. The Ouroboros is next to finish Side 3, the longest track on the album at 13.06. Another slow-burner of a tune that builds and builds into a tune of epic proportions. Another great song with some killer playing. Over to Side 4 we have Ghost Engineers – with its almost classical beginning and the weakest song on the album. Last track is a bonus track for the vinyl, Krieg Kennt Keine Sieger, and not a bad track it is.
Special mention goes out to Stephan Lill, who has a huge tone and drives the band with some monster riffs. That’s not knocking any of the other members as they are all great players – it’s just that guitar is very front and centre in the mix. If you were ever thinking about buying a Vanden Plas album and not sure where to start – I would go with The God Thing first, and then this beauty. Be careful when buying as the pressing quality is not great I’m on my third copy. Frontiers have no quality control.
8.5/10 from The Grooveman.
