Vanden Plas – The ghost xperiment – Illumination

7/10

Diving into part two of a concept album is one way to hear a full album from a band for the first time. That is what I do now. Vanden Plas is one of those band i’ve read about but i think i never heard a full album from.

But this will change in the future. This is the Prog rock I like best. Where focus is on the songs and not only how good each member is on their respective instruments. I might get some angry reactions to the comparisons to Flower Kings but I’ll take that and am eager to dive into a discussion about the difference or the similarities of course. “When the world is falling down” is a fantastic start to the journey which lead me into listening to the fist part after finishing this review.

This is music to rest your ears to and even if this particular album has a story to follow I find it harmonic to listen to. Just as I am trying to get people to not get itches from using the name Power Metal in a negative way I need people to rethink the word Prog rock. Of course there are all kinds of not so good bands in both those genres but Vanden Plas is just too good not to get the chance to be heard. Don’t go thinking its old men’s music. Still of course there is one 10 minute plus song here, but time flies through that one so it doesn’t feel like 13.02. I had to google to see what “Ouroboros” meant and damn this band is really deep into “thinking mans metal”. The album finishes off with the beautiful “Ghost Engineers”.

Artist Vanden Plas|
Title: The Ghos Experiment Illumination
Label. Frontiers Records
Date of release:20/12/04
Rate 7/10
Stand Out track: Wen the world is falling down