Review

Band: Vanishing Point

Album: The Fourth Season

Reviewer: Jeff

I've been a Vanishing Point fan for about 2 and a half years now, and I found their previous two efforts to be extremely impressive. I've said that on paper, this band should be my favorite band in the world, as they perfectly blend all the different metal styles I most enjoy. They've been a blend of progressive, power, and melodic metal, and this album really doesn't stray from this formula. I had very high expectations for this CD and I'm happy to say it met just about all of them.

The album gets off to a great start with "Embodiment", which is definitely one of its strongest tracks in my opinion. The chorus to this song is very catchy, and it generally sets the tone for the whole disc. Vocalist Silvio Massarro is still in fine form, showing that he has what is, in my opinion, one of the best and most unique voices in modern melodic metal. The album more or less maintains this style throughout, deviating just enough times to keep it interesting, such as the segue-type track "Gaia" which leads into the beautifully powerful "I Within I". "Behind the Open Door" is a bit heavier than most of the disc's other tunes, but it's more than welcome for me. The disc already felt very solid and complete as it closed in on the end, but the final track just brings it all home. "A Day of Difference" is more or less a ballad, not ever getting any heavier than some piano, vocals, strings, etc... but the band makes this sound extremely powerful, with Silvio belting out one of his best vocal performances on the disc. This track also features some excellent spoken-word background effects which really enhance the mood of the track.

Overall, as I mentioned before, this disc met every expectation I had for it, and will certainly receive a very generous ranking in my overall 2007 ranked list. If you are a fan of melodic, progressive, or power metal, you really can't go wrong with something like this.

Jeff's Rating: 92%