Tag: vanden plas

Vanden Plas — Chronicles Of The Immortals: Netherworld (Path 1) ★★★★★

On By Time LordIn Progarchy2 Comments

Thanks, Gianna! You have saved me a bit of time by introducing the new Vanden Plas. Allow me to add my track-by-track impressions to your superb set-up.

I really like this disc a lot and have selected it as one of my star-spangled picks for this July 4. Chronicles Of The Immortals is an excellent album, destined for the year-end Top Ten. It’s definitely one of my mid-year five-star picks.

Track one (3:52) starts off with a spoken-word introduction that together with the background music and a bit of singing builds a sense of anticipation. Then track two “The Black Knight” (8:29) lets us know we are unquestionably in excellently epic prog-metal territory. By the time track three “Godmaker” (5:24) kicks in, any doubts about whether or not the listener is in the presence of something extraordinary will have been removed. Clearly, this is an organically coherent compositional tour-de-force.

Track four (1:39) is a bit of a prelude that lets us catch our breath. But then track five “A Ghost’s Requiem” (3:56) is a completely surprising and unexpected transmogrification of sacred music tropes. This brilliant track cements the disc’s five-star status and forms a musical launch pad for the mind-blowing tracks that follow. Track six “New Vampyre” (6:16) and track seven “The King and the Children of Lost World” (7:52) continue to elevate the disc to new heights, which is quite astonishing, because standard practice is to lead an album with your finest material but here we have an unfolding organic whole and its accelerating excellence becomes more and more manifest.

Track eight “Misery Affection” (5:08) mellows out a bit and displays another side of the band’s remarkable skills. But just when we have been soothed by the stunning beauty of that brief pause in the intense metallic action, we are overwhelmed by track nine “Soul Alliance” (6:39), which together with its successor, track ten “Inside” (6:42), are my favorite parts the album, because their instrumentation and composition is sheer perfection. Together they tie together the entire album and bring things to conclusion in a brilliant way.

The final track, in fact, is absolutely the most satisfying conclusion to an epic concept album whole that I have heard in a long time. Really, I can’t recall feeling such excitement, other than with the similar way it feels to listen to the end of “2112” by Rush. The last two minutes of Chronicles Of The Immortals are pure dopamine-infused prog bliss. As those gigantic concluding waves of chords wash over us in the last two minutes, I am even reminded of some Rush tropes from the first half of the eighties.

Thanks, Vanden Plas. You have given us one of the greatest, most essential prog albums I have ever heard. What an amazing gift you have shared with us.

Vanden Plas — Chronicles Of The Immortals: Netherworld (Path 1)

Progarchist Rating: ★★★★★

Discovering Vanden Plas

On By Gianna EIn progressive rock music1 Comment

A progarchy confession: I’m not a big fan of progressive metal. I think bands like Dream Theater and Opeth are downright impressive musically, but their albums aren’t ones I often return to. I rarely find myself “brought home” by prog metal, the way that the best (more recent) offerings of Anathema seem to place everything around (and within) me in perfect balance. Give me the sonic and soulful perfection that is Marillion’s Brave over the collected virtuosity of Dream Theater any day.

 

But as I’m quickly discovering, exposure to excellent bands and new prog genres is one of the great benefits of citizenship in the Republic of Progarchy. So far, I’ve fallen for The Reasoning, a band that rightly gets a lot of love on these pages. And more recently, Chronicles of the Immortals: Netherworld (Path 1) by the underrated German prog metal band Vanden Plas, a concept album where the virtuosity of Dream Theater meets the storytelling of Marillion — compelling, personal, and one of the best prog offerings of the past year.

 

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Vanden Plas features Stephan Lill (guitars), Torsten Reichert (bass), Andy Kuntz (vocals), Andreas Lill (drums), and Gunter Werno (keyboards), a lineup unchanged since 1986. For Chronicles, the band teamed up with German author Wolfgang Hohlbein (a self proclaimed fan) to interpret his Netherworld novels for the stage. The concept is perfect for prog: a mortal protagonist caught in the apocalyptic battle between heaven and hell, each track revealing one of his “visions.” Its themes are at once cosmic and human, haunting and hopeful. The perennial themes of darkness versus light, good versus evil never seem tired. They get reimagined track after track, complimented and heightened by dynamic musicianship. Between heavy guitar riffs, spoken word, and stunning vocals, the album perfectly balances the intensity of prog metal and moments of deliberate – and startling – restraint. Everything in its rightful place. Listening to this album, you can’t help but feel that Vanden Plas has focused more on revealing, uncovering something true than creating anew.

 

Dissecting Chronicles track-by-track seems all wrong; this is truly a narrative album. Chronicles displays the unique power of prog music to pull the listener into its own horizon. By the album’s end, we stand on the precipice between blinding beauty and darkness, grateful to Vanden Plas for bringing us there.