Australia's progressive metal veterans Vanishing Point return after a six year break with their latest AFM Record release Dead Elysium, a bright, powerful collection of songs that shows just how much creative oomph this band still has in the tank. With ten new songs and clocking in at just about an hour, Dead Elysium is packed with plenty of memorable moments and excellent musical arrangements, the vocals of Silvio Massaro up front and center as he soars over the top of a wealth of heavy riffage courtesy of Chris Porcianko & James Maier. Keyboards are used quite liberally throughout, adding some nice symphonic elements to the chugging title track, and some exquisite piano adds a majestic tone to the hook laden "Count Your Days". As always, Vanishing Point take a more 'song based' progressive metal approach, like Threshold, rather than the more complex work of bands such as Dream Theater or Vanden Plas. "To the Worlds" is dark & dramatic, massive riffs and haunting synths providing the ear candy in a big way, while drummer Damien Hall's intricate stick work rumbles underneath crushing, symphonic arrangements on "Salvus", Massaro again putting in a stellar vocal performance on this very melodic track.
Other memorable fare here include the hook laden "The Fall", the monstrous 7+ minute epic "Free" , the complex and quite heavy "Recreate the Impossible", and the symphonic sledgehammer "Shadow World", another absolute winner with big orchestral synth swells, emotional vocals, huge riffs, blazing guitar solos, and jackhammer drumming. Honestly, there's not a weak track to be found here, Dead Elysium delivers one enjoyable slice of very melodic, catchy prog & power metal after another, so if you are looking for a highly memorable album of catchy, heavy, and symphonic metal here in 2020, you've come to the right place with this latest from Vanishing Point. Well done guys.
Track Listing
- Dead Elysium
- Count Your Days
- To the Wolves
- Salvus
- The Fall
- Free
- Recreate the Impossible
- Shadow World
- The Healing
- The Ocean
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