Apoch's Metal Review - Visions of Atlantis: Delta CD Review

Discography	Discography covers all information available up to day of review and is updated if future albums are reviewed.
Full-Length(s):	Eternal Endless Infinity (2002) • Cast Away (2004) • Trinity (2007) • Delta (2011)
Demo(s):	Morning in Atlantis (2000)

Review

Formed in 2000, Visions of Atlantis seemed to come out of nowhere, but was easily another band that fed into the then extyremely popular female fronted Gothic Rock/Metal band cliche. Their brand of female-fronted Melodic Power Metal start to glimmer amidst that chaos, and the band was signed in 2002, two years after recording their demo the year they formed. In 2004, the band signed to Napalm Records, released their second album, Cast Away, shot a video for the song "Lost", and quickly blew into the somewhat mainstream oriented spotlight that came with the lighter sound and female singing niche. Since then, the band has continued with their sound, though losing their original female vocalist Nicole Bogner after that album, and then Melissa Ferlaak shortly after their next release, Trinity. Again, a new vocalist by the name of Maxi Nil takes over, and the recipe for absolutely blandness is complete. Cast Away happens to be considered by many to be the worst album by this group, but could this release possibly take that crown?

Those who buy female fronted albums for the talent and not just based on looks are going to be heartbroken, as ehs'e really nothing special in the vocal department either. There are times where she does have some moments where she actually seems to break the monotone levels that feel imposed on her on this release, and those brief moments sound nice and add some range, but for the most part the vocals stay rather low, around the same tone, and just sound very generic, offering nothing past the gimmick of having a female vocalist on the group. Even the ballad track "Reflection" is a bit of a letdown, and it's her against ambience from the keyboard and a piano, but her performance just comes off as being alright, but completely void of any emotion except for some of the more enthusiastic background vocals she provides, and very monotone. Granted, she puts a little more emotion into her voice when the drums kick in, but it's temporary and still feels held back and amateurish. It's frustrating beyond belief on both this track, and the rest of the album. But, considering they feel restrained, is it really that she's not that talented? Actually no, it seems that the band chose to have her voice restrained for some reason, as this review will point out must be the case shortly.

With the obvious qualms and an observation I couldn't resist pointing out as a male [and trust me I'll be waiting for the hate mail to pour in shortly after this goes live], the album doesn't really offer much more in the lines of emotion, and it just proves why I seriously just did not want to review this album. Musically, Delta is ok, but that's about it. The music is slightly Melodic, but is clearly aimed at being more commercialized then anything, and often has a Hard Rock edge to it. It's obvious the talent is there, and when the music actually moves at a somewhat faster pace, it's actually kind of enjoyable, but the slow parts that appear in pretty much each and every song just sound bad. The keyboards add some atmosphere to the music that, if not there, would make the songs sound even more stale, and as pointed out, the vocals contributed are bland beyond belief, but from both spectrums. Not only does the new female vocalist feel like she either has little talent, or is just being greatly restrained in her performance since she has some shocking moments during "Black River Delta" and in the intro on "Memento" that show an urge to bring an operatic approach similar to Nightwish to the mix, the male vocalist sounds beyond generic, and has since Cast Away. There's absolutely nothing special about his contribution to the album, and is even more monotone with less of a range then the new female vocalist.

However, for as many negative things that you can say, there are some positive remarks to bring up with Delta. "Memento" has some powerful moments where the music actually does pick up and feels heavier, showing the band does have the will to create some Power Metal that is actually good and not generic and emotionless. "New Dawn" is also a catchy song that has a little more of a punch, but still comes off as a cliche lighter track that clearly tries to emulate their major single, "Lost", and attempt to create an atmosphere exactly like Cast Away, though carries a lot of the same bridges from "Memento" into the song as well, making it feel repetitive at times. Again, "Reflection" shows some potential and talent from the new female vocalist, but still feels restrained and lacks any real emotion, though definitely better then almost all the other tracks on here as it also shows off the more Hard Rock influenced sound that was alluded to earlier in the review, right down to the echoed background sound on the insanely short and simply guitar solo common on Hard Rock ballads. The closing song, "Gravitate Towards Fatality" is another song that is ok for what it is, which is a slightly catchier version of "Memento", and it's ok, but it just has the most upsetting flute solo, or whatever that's supposed to be that is performed by the keyboardist, which is the final straw for this album for any listener.

But, Delta also features what is quite possibly the most out of place song ever compared to Dungeon placing "A Rise to Power (Reprise)" at the end and being the opposite style of the entire album. This is literally in the same field. "Conquest of Others" comes out of nowhere with a heavier Power Metal feel, though still coming off a bit generic, but far more epic compared to anything on thsi effort. It features shouting, yet restrained male vocals, beautiful female orchestral vocals the way any fan of female fronted Orchestral/Symphonic Power Metal expects them to be: Beautiful, emotional, and powerful. It even has a brief gutteral section of one loine that goes from left to right out of nowhere near the end. This is a good song! It's not the greatest, but it's still a good song! This is what this band should try to sound like if this is the kind of talent they are clearly holding back! Why they don't just sit down and write music that doesn't feel completely restrained and emotionless is beyond anything anyone can understand, but this one at least feels liuke it has a little anger in the vocals and music, and really just becomes the most enjoyable song on this album, as well as perhaps in the band's career. And what's more, "Elegy of Existence" even does the same thing, but instead has rhaspier sounding vocals against a heavier, faster song. Granted it's not as dynamic as "Conquest of Others", but this one is also a good song!

Other then "Conquest of Others" and "Elegy of Existence", a few alright tracks with impressive moments here and there, Delta is horrible. While it's not the fact that the album feels aimed at a commercial audience, it's just the whole package. The music and vocals feel restrained, lifeless, and randomly show signs of life throughout the album. The music is generic outside of "Conquest of Others", and can often sound like a band trying to make boredom sound good. While the band manages to make some songs sound fluid, many jump around between slow and mid-tempo paces without transition and feel more like a talentless knock off of Opeth's Watershed, but in Melodic Power Metal format. The songs are often repetitive and bland with overly simple compositions that a monkey or toddler could perform given enough instructions on which buttons to push, and ultimately becomes one of the most irritating and frustrating albums to ever see the light of day. The band needs to quit writing this generic sounding Power Metal garbage and stop restraining themselves! "Conquest of Others" and "Elegy of Existence" show that the entire band has a good amount of talent to write songs that flat out don't suck, and show that both of these vocalists actually have range and can be very impressive when they actually put some emotion into the album! Delta is absolutely pointless except for a few tracks that have some almost non-existent short catchy hooks, and if it weren't for the two aforementioned songs that actually are good, it would be worth completely forgetting about, as yes, it is worse then Cast Away in every way humanly possible.

Digital review copy of this release provided by:
Napalm Records.

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