Year:
2019
Total Time: 46:00
Label: Frontiers Records
It’s not too long ago since the release of “Chronicles Of The Immortals” and the Prog Metallers VANDEN PLAS are already back and ready to present us their new album entitled “The Ghost Xperiment – Awakening”. The release of their new-ninth studio album highlights the high artistic level of creativity they have maintained as a band for so long.
From the first track, “The Ghost Experiment – Awakening”, it becomes clear that the band offers classic, traditional Progressive Metal in the classic QUEENSRŸCHE style but with plenty of contemporary elements and alternative rock influences that define their own style. Being a band with over twenty five years of history, their sound is fully formed and their chemistry obvious.
The next three tracks are each about 8-9 minutes long, with the most important of them being “Three Ghosts”. The band introduces more acoustic parts here, but the chorus is the element that essentially takes the track off and emphasizes its importance. “Devils’ Poetry” takes us in a heavier direction, with the band showing off its Non-Prog Metal directions. The album closes with “Fall From the Skies” and the album’s title track “The Ghost Xperiment”, which was also the first single.
Production is wise, but maybe a little more room for the instruments to “breathe” in some songs wouldn’t hurt to have. The mixing, maybe a little muddy at times, is making things lose. The highest sounds are the ones that suffer the most, something that one can notice mainly in the drums.
VANDEN PLAS offers us a stylish modern Progressive Metal album with “The Ghost Experiment – Awakening” with powerful, classic Heavy Metal influences and plenty of Alternative Rock in the mix. The songs are built in a way that makes them accessible even to those who don’t like the Progressive sound. Overall, it shows a band in great form, releasing a strong album consisting of a good set of songs.
Rating: 7/10
Editor: Fanouris Exintavelonis
Related Link: VANDEN PLAS – Official Page
