We will never be grateful enough to the Vanden Plas led by Andy Kuntz and the brothers Andreas And Stephan Lill. For the quality of their albums, for their dedication to metal music, for the consistency of their releases and we could continue the list… What is surprising in 2024 is finding a band that is practically untouchable, still capable of drawing inspiration and proposing enthralling melodies and powerful rhythms . Unlike its counterpart James LaBrie (Dream Theater), to which it is often compared, Andy Kuntz maintains its incisive tone and the rest of the band finds no faults, including the performance of the new keyboard player Alessandro Del Vecchio (Edge of Forever, Hardline, Jørn Lande) which replaces the historical Günter Werno.
Their eleventh full-length in their career therefore presents itself as a well-packaged product: a long title and a dragonfly on the cover, there is something to attract new fans who still don’t know the German band. The Empyrean Equation of the Long Lost Things also reveals a compact tracklist with two songs over ten minutes and two around eight, a normal routine for progsters of yesterday and today.
L’opener coincides with the title track and the first notes are piano. The start is cinematic and within two minutes we find ourselves familiarizing ourselves with the typical German sound: powerful guitars, tasty riffs and the right groove. The feeling is that of meeting an old friend again. Halfway through the third minute we witness the first guitar-keyboard unison and the new line-up is already promoted for technical quality and harmony. Curiously the voice of Kuntz it only takes over halfway through the song, basically the first track in the setlist is a sort of almost instrumental intro of considerable duration.
“My Icarian Flight” is the first canonical piece, if I may say so. In the incipit it vaguely recalls Nightwish, then the power prevails. The lyrics are, as per the Vanden Plas rule, poetic and focused on refined lexical choices: «I stare as the cyan midnightsun / Flows in the embers of darkness / Her flames burning out / The light of forever is gone / And now she is dying alone» . The chorus is a melodic riot, between AOR and heavy metal, but the instrumental section in the middle of the song also amazes, close to the sounds of Dream Theater, with shredder Stephan Lill on the shields. A great hit, nothing to add. The following one also has a nice shot”Sanctimonarium”, a balanced and multi-faceted piece; Alessandro Del Vecchio offers some original synths and the power is not lacking. Vanden Plas’ skill is being able to arouse a sense of nostalgia for the great prog metal that once was and here is the quintessence of it.
The fast pace of “The Sacrilegious Mind Machine” are reminiscent in some ways of the masterpiece Christ 0, but there is also room for a central break, followed by a rhythm section that wouldn’t look out of place on a Gamma Ray album, except to be enriched by a tasty hammond in the immediate continuation. “They Call Me God” is the unmissable ballad. Vanden Plas have delivered gems in the past when the bpm slows down, here the streak continues. First part in pianissimo and second part powerful and cathartic, what better could you ask for? The album ends with the fifteen minutes of the epic “March of the Saints”, characterized by a guitar main theme that is nothing short of electrifying and hypnotic. As the final suite it offers a thrilling sound journey, divided into several sections, with continuous changes in speed and atmosphere, internal references and a memorable crescendo coda.
The Empyrean Equation of the Long Lost Things is one of the best Vanden Plas records ever. “Vivid” and powerful music. The band now knows how to propose yet another concept and does it in a masterly way, without mistakes or excesses. Highly recommended listening, don’t miss it.
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