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Vanden Plas - Far Off Grace

Artist:	Vanden Plas
Title:	Far Off Grace
Label:	Inside Out IOMCD 043
Length(s):	60 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1999
Month of review:	08/1999

Line up

Andy Kuntz - vocals
Stephan Lill - guitars
Torsten Reichert - bass
Gunter Werno - keyboards
Andreas Lill - drums

Tracks

1)	I Can See	4.01
2)	Far Off Grace	7.03
3)	Into The Sun	6.33
4)	Where's The Man	6.11
5)	Iodic Rain	6.14
6)	Don't Miss You	3.51
7)	Inside Your Head	6.55
8)	Fields Of Hope	6.46
9)	I'm With You	6.43
10)	??	5.42

Summary

Quite a history already, but this is the first album of theirs that I put in my CD player. I have reason to believe that the names Inside Your Head an Iodic Rain got interchanged, so I switched them.

The music

opens powerfully with I Can See. Especially the vocal melody of the chorus and the arrangement thereof (with the backing vocals) of this song are striking. Add to this the powerful guitar chords and the drums hacking away and we have a fine example of progmetal right here. The title track follows next and is a ballad, that becomes quite a bit louder during the track. Again the song is really not bad with some nice keyboards in it and a bombastic chorus. The verses are bit boring though, and the alternation between them offsets the balance in the song. After a short but clear guitar solo, we come to a rather long passage of lone piano after which the vocals set in again, and it works better now. Into The Sun is the next one up. Heavy guitars and rather extensive layers of keyboards open this bombastic track. Like the first track the vocals are rather accessible and the harmonies somewhat American sounding (compare with Royal Hunt). The music is definitely progmetal, but also quite catchy and again some tasteful additions on keys. After a promising opening, this track sinks in a bit during the vocal parts. The piano playing against the vocals is nice. For the rest the song is quite similar in style to the previous songs with catchy harmonies, lots of power, not fast, some breaks and nice and even good melodies. Iodic Rain is a driving track, taking some gas back for the vocals. As tends to happen on this CD I hear echoes of things I know, but never clear enough to identify them. In this case I think the keyboards in the back in an early part of the song are to blame. Later we even get a keyboard solo and also a great driving guitar solo. Don't Miss you is the "love" song of the album. The beginning is good: a good melody, tasteful piano and cello. The lyrics are a bit strange: somebody doesn't love somebody or miss her, but wants that person to die in his arms (seems like the kind of denial that is also present in 10CC's I'm Not In Love). This chorus is in fact the weak part of the song, but all in all this is a good ballad, compared to the usually boring ballads that I tend to hear. Quite melodramatic. Keyboards and acoustic guitar open Inside Your Head. Then the pace goes up a bit and after some more acoustic guitar the rhythm guitar takes over. The music revisits the opening, but quickly we return to the loud and catchy chorus and a closing guitar solo. A powerful and driving track, which takes up my attention for its full length. After some Asiatic music the song breaks loose. The vocal parts unfortunately deflate the song a bit. Later on, the vocal parts are more involved and include even some chaotic making backing vocals. The closing track should be I'm With You, which is again ballad. Again, the arrangements of the vocals together with the backing vocals in the chorus is very good. The music picks up a bit now with more involved drumming, a keyboard solo and the guitar making its grand entree' and at the end the piano plays a reprise of an earlier track. The bonus track (or did they maybe forget the title on the cardboard sleeve?) goes more into the direction of metal with its double bass and more riffbased approach. This does not mean however that the song lacks melody or keyboards (it doesn't). In view of the lyrics my guess would be that the song is called Kiss Of Death. A driving song.

Conclusion

This a rather typical progmetal album, as always well-executed. The songs are not particularly great, but above average and there are plenty of good melodies around. I like the vocalist and although the keyboards play a minor role, the keyboardist is not listed up there for nothing. Now to the compositions. The music is not overly complex or anything and fortunately the band doesn't fiddle very much, but on the other hand, it happens that after a good start the song has to wind down too much to come down to the level of the verses and then that takes all the drive from the songs, since I do not get the feeling that the bridge is natural enough. Still, I think most progmetal fans will at least want to take a listen to this rather energetic album in which the good, catchy harmonies and the sometimes extremely melodic guitar strike me as the most important ingredients. Still, save for one single second, a full hour of satisfying progmetal that does not bring anything new, but that comes off rather well compared many of the other bands around.