VANDEN PLAS

Tell me, how many bands do you know where the lineup hasn't changed since the group's formation? In 1986, a single was released, after which VANDEN PLAS went quiet. However, in 1991 the band became active again -- and remarkably, the five people who recorded the demo "Days Of Thunder" back in '91 -- vocalist Andy Kuntz, guitarist Stephan Lill, bassist Torsten Reichert, drummer Andreas Lill, and keyboardist Gunter Werno -- have participated in the recording of every release by the group, and the fifth studio album "Christ.0" was no exception. VANDEN PLAS have never delighted fans with frequent releases, and a full four years passed between the fourth and latest albums (there were no singles during this period either; the only live album came out in 2000). So what did one of the most renowned prog-metal bands deliver after four years of silence? What do we hear on the concept album "Christ.0," whose lyrics were, as usual, penned by vocalist Andy Kuntz, this time inspired by the famous story told by Alexandre Dumas in the first half of the century before last -- a tale of a prisoner who was a victim of injustice and his terrible revenge against those responsible for his imprisonment? The whole world knows this story as "The Count of Monte Cristo"; on the VANDEN PLAS album, the action is updated to modern times. Don't look for a straightforward narrative -- it is symbolic and crafted in a manner typical of progressive rock's philosophical approach. Now about the music -- to be honest, there are no experiments or fundamental innovations; the album sounds very much like its predecessor. Absolutely the same vocal technique, meticulous attention to every instrument, choral backing vocals, virtuoso bass and guitar, keyboard passages, and fascinating drum parts. To sum up, we hear superb progressive metal in the spirit of DREAM THEATER of the '90s. Incidentally, as a bonus track we get a cover version of the famous "Gethsemane" by Andrew Lloyd Webber from the well-known rock opera. The album has one drawback: we have heard all of this before, and more than once, frankly speaking.