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November 2024
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August 2024
- Siege Perilous: Creation's Call EP
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- Hammerfall: Avenge The Fallen
- Jim Peterik & World Stage: Roots & Shoots Vol. 2
At Vance: Facing Your Enemy
At Vance: Facing Your Enemy
Melodic/Heavy/Power Metal
4.0/5.0
Stay the course might best describe At Vance's ninth studio album, Facing Your Enemy. Guitarist Olaf Lenk and company deliver another disc of melodic metal, sometimes touching on the vigor of power metal, sometimes having the catchiness of melodic hard rock
At Vance: not enough room on the couch.
From the gate you get two songs of basic power metal, Heaven Is Calling and the title track, yet both equally melodic. Then, beginning with Eyes of the Stranger through Tokyo you get that very accessible, very catchy, melodic metal. Or is it melodic hard rock with a metal edge. Either way Fear No Evil and Live & Learn are both fist pumping and toe tapping songs. Tokyo is a cover of a song by the obscure Eighties band of the same name; it's nicely done.
The ballads also blur the line between arena anthem and metal, especially Don't Dream and See Me Crying. The album rounds out with another, Things I Never Needed, something of some introspection. If you're put off by a significant number of slower tunes on an otherwise metal album, you find this the weak point of Facing Your Enemy. But I don't think so.
Ultimately, Facing Your Enemy is rather self-defining. This is where At Vance is at today, and has been for several albums, and it's a good place to be. Recommended.
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In Short
Facing Your Enemy finds At Vance on course with very attractive and entertaining melodic heavy metal.
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eviewing my archives, I was pleased to find that I have had the privilege to review every Lionville since their self-titled debut in 2011. Formed by Stefano Lionetti, a songwriter, singer and guitarist based in ... [ Read More ]