A year after the first part of 'The Ghost Xperiment', the Germans of 'Vanden Plas' release the second part 'Illumination'. I reviewed in 2015 'Chronicles of the Immortals: Netherworld II' which, for me, was one of the best progressive metal albums of 2015, and, in 2019, I had a little more trouble digesting the first part of 'The Ghost Xperiment', certainly for lack of time to enter this fresco epic but I must say that with the continuation, the density of the compositions is even more important while keeping a certain accessibility and necessarily requires that we lingers there if we wants to draw all the richness from it because it is an hour of music available to us.
First of all, the album is very varied and each composition brings its share of originality, the melodic lines having been particularly worked which certainly makes it possible to appropriate the whole more easily and this from the first title 'When The World Is Falling Down' which is delivered quite easily and constitutes a powerful entry but unrolling a heady melody. Then, the atmospheres are very varied and the changes of rhythm and intensity are well placed throughout the opus, with for example the mid-tempo 'Under The Horizon' which follows 'When The World Is Falling Down' and which brings a more calm atmosphere, then 'Black Waltz Death' is even calmer and offers a beautiful power ballad before attacking an intensive 'The Lonely Psychogon' which reminds me of certain compositions of the symphonic metal formation 'Kamelot' followed by the huge 'Fatal Arcadia' containing multiples changes in intensity.. We can also highlight the beautiful instrumental passages that highlight remarkable sections of keyboards and guitar but also instruments of the orchestra and the Germans have invited for the occasion 'Ulli Perhonen' from the new symphonic metal formation 'Snow White Blood' and 'Oliver Hartmann' and 'Herbie Langhans' for the choirs. But the highlight of the album is undoubtedly the long development 'The Ouroboros' which, by itself, contains all the ambiances that one can find in the album with first of all a first part which starts calmly and which gradually gains in power to explode into an addictive chorus, and then, an energetic and fast instrumental part with magnificent sound disgressions to finish in apotheosis with the melody of the starting theme that never leaves you.
In summary, this last album from the Germans of 'Vanden Plas' is a real gem of metal mixing progressive and symphonic with remarkable rhythmic and intensity breaks between the different compositions with, icing on the cake, an irreproachable production which, for me, makes 'The Ghost Xperiment - Illumination' one of the best progressive metal releases of the 2020 year... | |
