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Some solid tracks mixed with hollow music and blander material.-
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| Van Canto: Break the Silence |
A Cappella, Power Metal
Napalm Records
September 27th, 2011
- If I Die in Battle - 4:45
- The Seller of Souls - 3:22
- Primo Victoria (Sabaton cover) - 3:42
- Dangers in My Head - 4:06
- Black Wings of Hate - 4:41
- Bed of Nails (Alice Cooper cover) - 3:35
- Spelled in Waters - 4:25
- Neuer Wind - 3:19
- The Higher Flight - 4:58
- Master of the Wind (Manowar cover) - 6:07
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| Review Information |
Release length: 43:01
Review posted on September 24th, 2011
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| | Overall Score: 5.5/10 |
 
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| Discography |
Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed. |
| Full-Length(s): |
A Storm to Come (2006) • Hero (2008) • Tribe of Force (2010) • Break the Silence (2011)
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| Review |
After storming the Metal world with their third and more successful album Tribe of Force about one year ago, Van Canto returned to the studio to record their follow-up effort. The A Cappella Power Metal group has earned the respect and admiration of many over the years, as well as having many fans of Metal proclaim this a fad and a band of gimmicks, not accepting the rather fresh and overall inspiring approach to music this group does bring with them. With a strong parting of minds on Van Canto, the band really needs to pull themselves together and put an effort out that will easily win over the naysayers. But, does Break the Silence live up to what they built up in their discography thus far, or does this effort fall flat on it's face?
The audio quality here is pretty clear, and given that the only instrument is a drum kit, this can be a bit iffy, but in the end works well. The cymbols crash loudly, the snares sound crisp, and the bass kicks have a thud that works for the overall sound, but comes off a bit too light with it's thud. On top of that, where the quality really matters does end up hurting Break the Silence. The distorted vocals that make up the instruments here sound hollow and empty against the drums, giving this effort a sound that is far from rich, especially when the guitars start belting out words for atmosphere like with the track "Primo Victoria," an impressive song in theory but simply does not feel like it's executed well thanks to that hollow sound, as if it just never really started and is composed more of music similar to how the track starts. The background choir vocals that do appear in the track at times do help to make the song sound a little thicker musically, and the vocals here are undoubtedly fantastic, but this track really becomes a good example of the album's faults sadly.
And sadly that becomes the main drawback of the album. Break the Silence does have some strong A Cappella music on some tracks, but even those can feel a little empty at times. "If I Die in Battle" has a faster pace with an interesting harmonized spoken word-esque introduction. As the song proceeds it does feel a little richer in comparison to other tracks and tries to do a little more as well. There is a "guitar" solo here, and it sounds good, but at the same time that's another layer removed from the main music, which ends up giving a bit of a hollower sound to the song, but not as bad as "Primo Victoria" has. Of the many songs on this release, "The Seller of Souls" is perhaps the most engaging. The track's more upbeat sound and somewhat faster music with a richer vocal performance to represent the instruments works well with the fantastic vocals that actually sing the lyrics of the song well. The track "Neuer Wind" is also a strong track that finds a richer sound to the music here, and again we find a track that is a little more upbeat, as well as has a little more going on with the main singing vocals and drums to aid in filling the gaps that distorted instrumental vocals can't quite fill. "The Higher Flight" can be summed up in about the same means, and the way the band executes the "guitar solo" this time around, having it more at the start during the introductory build up, works in favor of the somewhat hollow sound it gives without that layer adding to a richer sound that makes this track as enjoyable as the others mentioned.
Sadly, in a stark contrast, the slower tracks here seem to suffer the most. "Black Wings of Hate" is one of them, as it is clearly meant to be a slower, more depressing track, but with the more enthusiastic female clean singing that goes into operatic levels, it feels a little too much against the somewhat barren audio sound and simpler music of the song. Yet, while many of the slower songs on here really don't end up working out for this release due to that hollow sound, the track "Spelled in Waters" becomes the exception, but that's mostly due to the rules of the band's sound being broken. This track actually includes a real acoustic guitar instead of vocals only. This really does help fill the hollower gap of the sound this album has, and once again finds the female vocals pretty much randomly going into an operatic approach. While these do sound good, just like with "Black Wings of Hate" they just don't fit the music, or at least in that spot. Had they been restrained until the very end of the song when the male clean singing picks up, which feels natural to the song but feels a bit off due to the less enthusiastic vocal performance that would have matched the section right before it a lot better, this approach would have worked well instead of a somber male performance and then the operatic singing. Of course this song does feature the distorted vocals for the music, but more acting liking random vocals trying to be an instrument and not working due to the inclusion of the physical acoustic guitar, but making for some decent background noise to make the song sound a little more active then it really is.
But what Van Canto album would be complete without the additional cover tracks? First is the track "Primo Victoria," but that song has already been mentioned in this review, and for a cover it's an alright interpretation, but for this style has it's faults in the overall performance. You also get a cover of the Alice Cooper classic "Bed of Nails," which is actually done quite nicely. It's a more energetic track all around with a good deal of melody to it, capturing the spirit of the classic nicely and paying homage to Mr. Cooper himself nicely. Finally there's the Manowar cover "Master of the Wind," which is actually performed more by the group's female vocalist with humming harmonies from those who handle the instruments of the album while a piano performs the music for the track. Again the operatic vocals are randomly executed, but overall it does end up to be a pretty strong, emotionally driven track that closes out Break the Silence nicely.
What it all boils down to is a mixed bag of material and quality. The hollow sound of the release often leaves tracks here feeling more along the bland side, and even sterile though the quality is not that clean to really blame that for it. The drumming here is good, but it feels like that doesn't help things either, having less of a filling performance from it to accomodate this style of vocal performance to replace the actual instruments, and when there are instruments it sounds good, but then a continuity issue comes into play despite how better off the slower material is then when compared to the slower tracks that don't have actual instrumental accompaniment. The upbeat tracks here save the day, and many of those end up feeling much richer, which again seems to come from a stronger drum performance that fills the gaps a lot better then it does in other songs. Overall, Break the Silence still shows the talent of Van Canto well, but even if you were a fan of their last album, this release may leave you feeling a little discouraged, as it simply sounds rather empty for much of the release.
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