DippoMagoo There are quite a few unique novelty bands playing various styles of metal, but perhaps no other band is more out there than Van Canto. Many bands focus on specific lyrical themes or use weird costumes or face paint and the like to distinguish themselves, but where Van Canto separates themselves from everyone else is purely with their sound. Their music is based around Acapella, a specific style of choral singing where the voice is used to create a full sound, often being used to make up for the lack of any physical instruments. Needless to say, pulling this off in the realms of metal is quite the challenge, and, at least to my knowledge, no one else has yet to attempt it, yet somehow Van Canto not only manages to make it work, they’ve had great success in doing so, releasing six albums through twelve years of existence, up to this point.

The band first exploded onto the scene in 2006, with their debut A Storm to Come, which was quite the impressive debut, containing a mix of original tracks as well as a cover of Metallica’s classic “Battery”, with the latter in particular catching the attention of many folks for being a unique and quite amazing version of the song. Over the next eight years, the band would release four more albums which followed roughly the same formula, featuring some original tracks, which were mostly based around a fantasy power metal style, along with the occasional ballad or more heavy metal influenced track, or even a track with slight symphonic elements through the use of vocal effects, as well covers of more classics such as “Wishmaster”, “Fear of the Dark” and “Master of Puppets”. My favourite work of theirs to date is their third album, Tribe of Force, which struck a perfect balance between originals and covers, as well as simply being an incredibly energetic and well-performed album. However, they changed things up a bit in 2016 with their sixth release, Voices of Fire, ditching covers completely and going for more of a conceptual approach, while also increasing the symphonic elements. It was a surprisingly cohesive and epic fantasy power metal album full of great tracks, and quickly became my second favourite by the band, as well as being their most adventurous and most epic. I was anticipating a follow up in the near future, but sadly longtime lead vocalist Sly left the band in 2017, which led to the band shifting gears. They recruited new vocalist Hagen Hirschmann and soon went to work on their next release. Now, in the second half of 2018, that new release, Trust in Rust, is here, and it marks a return to a more traditional format for the band, containing a couple of cover tracks, as well as being less focused and more silly, like past releases. Unfortunately, while it still contains some fun tracks and traces of their epic sound, less energetic and rougher performances, as well as inconsistent songwriting, prevent it from living up their past works, instead of ending up as easily their weakest release to date.

For those who’ve never heard the band before, Van Canto has a truly unique sound, with drums being the only physical instrument in place, while everything else is performed through vocals. They have members making different sounds to imitate the guitars and bass, as well as occasionally having co-lead vocalist Inga Scharf add in some effects to give more of a symphonic feel, and the way they make random sounds to perform “guitar” solos is quite comical yet also pretty impressive, in a weird way. Their style has stayed largely the same over the years, though their sound has become more polished, and their songwriting has gotten a bit more epic as well as more diverse over time, most notably on Voices of Fire. With that being said, Trust in Rust is quite surprising, as it feels like all the evolution found on the aforementioned album has been completely reversed, as the songs are back to being very simple, the symphonic elements are completely gone, and the songwriting is as straight-forward as ever. There’s a mix of speedier tracks, mid-paced tracks and one ballad, as expected, and some tracks bring back the classic “rakka takka” and “riddly diddly” sounds used on some of their most popular tracks, but overall I find the performances to be a little less inspired here than on past albums. Obviously it’s still a fun album, and the backing vocalists, drummer Bastian and Inga all give solid performances, but the energy of past albums isn’t quite there this time, and while Sly being out of the picture may be a part of that, it also could just be that the band has finally lost some of their magic. Either way, there’s still some great tracks here, as well as some fairly decent tracks, and unfortunately some major duds. The faster paced original tracks are generally the best and come the closest to recapturing past glories, while some of the slower tracks are more flawed and help expose one particular problem this album has introduced.

That, of course, would be a new lead vocalist, Hagen. Obviously, Inga Scharf is solid as always, mostly sticking to a higher register and sometimes singing somewhat operatically, giving the tracks a nice melodic touch, but she doesn’t seem quite as energetic here as on past albums. At the same time, most highlights of the album tend to come when she is singing. Which brings me to her new co-lead, Hagen. When the band first introduced him through a mini song they composed, with him performing some vocals in it, while the band sang about him being “Voice Number Seven”, I was quite intrigued to see what he could bring to the table. I instantly noticed a deep and rather aggressive voice, that could potentially open up new possibilities for the band, as well as the potential for some death growls and other rough kinds of vocals, but I also noticed a bit of weakness in his voice, that I was hoping the band could work around. Unfortunately, it’s the weaknesses that stand out the most when Hagen sings on Trust in Rust, as while his softer, deeper vocals are decent, they feel just a tad off at times, and every time he tries adding in some power, the results are far from pretty. His voice breaks often, with very little pressure put on it, and he has a tendency to get way over the top. When you put the two together, the results have the potential to be absolutely disastrous, which is exactly what happens a few times on this album, as there are actually some tracks here I can’t listen to in full most of the time, just because I can’t take his vocals anymore. I really don’t like to harp on anyone or single one individual out in a bad way, but when your band is as heavily reliant on vocals as Van Canto, if one performer is off, especially one of the leads, it’s going to stand out in a horrible way.

Another area where Trust in Rust doesn’t fully deliver is in the songwriting. I’ll be honest: When I initially saw this album would contain cover tracks again, I was a bit disappointed, because while the band has done some great covers in the past, I found they were getting to be less and less impressive with each album, and their absence on Voices of Fire actually allowed for a more cohesive, more focused album, which I greatly appreciated. This time around, lyrical themes are all over the place, with some of the epic and fun fantasy lyrics fans would expect, as well as some tracks where things get a bit silly, but in a bad way. One example of this that could instantly leave fans with a bad first impression is the opening track “Back in the Lead”. The backing vocalists do their best work to sell it, with some nice rhythms, but the song itself is very slow paced and not as energetic as I’d expect from an opener. Worse, the lyrics are obnoxious and unbearable, with the band talking about how great they are in a way that comes off as comical and even downright childish. To make things even more unbearable, Hagen sounds just a bit off throughout the track, especially falling flat towards the end where he starts going over the top and his voice breaks in a rather embarrassing way. I’d honestly go as far as to call this the single worst track the band has ever made, so for the album to recover from this, would be a tough task.

Thankfully, things pick up quite a bit with the next track, “Javelin”. This one has some nice harmonies at the beginning and quickly picks up the pace, bringing back the classic “rakkatakka” vocals and going full force with some epic vocal melodies. It’s a high speed, a very melodic track where Inga leads the way and delivers a strong chorus. It doesn’t quite reach the heights of classics like “Lost Forever” or “My Voice”, but it’s certainly a welcome return to form after that hideous opening track. Another highlight soon follows in the form of second single “Melody”, which I think would have been a better lead single, as while “Hagen” still struggles a bit during the verses, he sounds perfectly fine on the chorus, which is huge and epic, exactly how the band sounds at their best. It’s a track that mixes speedy verses with a slow but epic chorus, and it’s definitely one of the best on the album. The highlight of the track is the epic “Rakka takka/riddly diddly” filled section in the middle, where things get crazy in an awesome way. Not quite as good as that one, but still enjoyable, are the title track and “Darkest Days”, two more mid-paced tracks. The latter has some more fairly decent vocals from Hagen, as well as some nice melodies, while the former gets a bit silly like the opening track but thankfully it’s a more energetic track overall, and the lyrics don’t stand out in a bad way like they do on “Back in the Lead”. It’s simply a solid and fun track. Closing track “Heading Home” is the one ballad on the album, and along with some pretty awesome backing vocals, it has the best performance by Hagen on the album, as he’s much more relaxed and sings softer than normal, allowing the melodies of the track to come through. It’s a surprisingly nice way to end the album. One last highlight is “Infinity”, another fun track, with a super speedy chorus, and again Hagen actually sounds pretty good here, while Inga is great as always.

Moving back to the not so positive, “Neverland” is a slower track with a pretty decent chorus, though I find it a bit cheap that the band actually says the name repeatedly as part of the backing vocals, which clearly kills the immersion, as the backing vocals are supposed to represent instruments, so that just takes me out of it a bit. The song itself is decent, but a bit uninspired and clearly one of the weaker tracks here. On the disastrous side is “Desert Snake”, a mid-paced and heavier metal influenced track, which would be decent enough, except Hagen throws in some harsh vocals every once in a while and these get on my nerves every time, making it one of the tracks I can barely get through.

Lastly, we have the two covers. First up is “Ride the Sky”, a classic Helloween song, of course. This is a pretty fun cover, with the backing members and Bastian doing a great job of converting the song to the band’s style, but while Inga does a solid enough job, I find her vocals lack a bit of energy, especially during the chorus. Speaking of which, Kai Hansen himself shows up during the chorus, but he practically sounds like he’s falling asleep, which again takes me out of the song a bit. It’s a solid cover as is, but it could have been amazing if the lead vocals were a touch stronger and more fierce, I think. The other cover is of the AC/DC classic “Hell’s Bells” and to say I was expecting it to fail hard, would be a massive understatement. The band cheats a bit again by using an actual bell at the beginning, but that’s an iconic part of the original, so I’m fine with that. The backing members again do an excellent job, managing to recreate the classic riffs and rhythms perfectly, and this actually had a chance to prove me wrong and be a great cover. Sadly, though, Hagen shows up to spoil the fun and he is at his absolute worst on this track. Trying to channel Brian Johnson is a difficult task, as he manages to pull off an epic falsetto that has a ton of grit to it, while just barely straddling the edge between being too over the top and just perfect. Sadly, Hagen is way over the top right from the very start, and he only gets worse as the track goes on, with his vocals feeling very forced and strained, and he gets so irritating by the end, I almost always have to switch the song off. Some bands are best left uncovered, and AC/DC are one of them, as both Bon Scott and Brian Johnson are near impossible to emulate, and Hagen doesn’t even come close to the latter on this track.

This has probably been my harshest review in years, perhaps ever on this site, but let’s be clear here: I’m only being so critical because I know Van Canto can and have released far better releases than this, so it just saddens me to see them fall so hard, especially after Voices of Fire was such an amazing album. Trust in Rust is a disappointing mixed bag of an album, which still has traces of the band’s epic A capella power metal in fine form, but it also has some of their weakest songwriting to date, some embarrassing lyrics and it also happens to be hamstrung by easily the worst lead vocals the band has ever had. A tough recommendation for existing fans, though they should still find a few tracks to appreciate here, while anyone else is recommended to give “Melody” a listen, and if that impresses, the rest of the album may be worth a shot, but otherwise it’s a pretty tough one to recommend. It’s still a decent release, overall, but far from what I’ve come to expect from the band, and I badly hope they can find out a way to make a better album next time out because they’re much better than this album shows.

originally written for myglobalmind.com: https://myglobalmind.com/2018/08/11/van-canto-trust-in-rust-review/

Gallifrey Novelty Music, Part II

This is the first Van Canto album I have heard, and it’s likely to be the last. I found Van Canto through In Legend, a band who they have been closely involved with, even collaborating on one track, and a band who share the same novelty appeal that Van Canto have. You see, In Legend are a ‘piano metal’ band, replacing all guitars and bass with piano, whereas Van Canto do their ‘a cappella metal’ shtick, with the weird vocals and dumb ‘soloing’. But the reason I came here wasn’t because of the novelty factor, it was more because I actually thought that Dawn of the Brave might house some decent music. Ballads 'n' Bullets certainly did, and In Legend proved that it wasn’t just the ‘piano metal’ factor that made them stand out, they were legitimately talented songwriters, and the songs on that album were legitimately good. But I honestly can’t say the same about Dawn of the Brave.

But let’s compare these two bands, because I really think that In Legend have made one of the best ‘novelty’ records I’ve ever heard, and yet this is a pretty embarrassing affair. There’s obviously going to be some bias, because you can be proficient at piano and it will sound great, yet try being proficient at imitating rhythm guitar with vocals and you’ll get laughed out of the room. And I did laugh, regularly. Some of the sounds they sing to imitate guitars are just fucking hilarious, and there’s literally no way I could ever take any of it seriously. The way they intercut the ‘tense’ intro track with “bum bum bum bumabum bum” just makes me crack up. And yes, I know that Van Canto’s music is hardly to be taken seriously, but In Legend do the same style of hilarity with their ‘palm muted’ octave power chords, but at least some of the tracks on that record have soul, I’m not just laughing at them

But I completely realise that I’m barking up the wrong tree in a way – Van Canto are a joke band and they make that incredibly clear. This is not music to be taken seriously, and the band knows that and makes their music in a bit of a joke-ish way to make sure no one does. I mean, “Badaboom” (named after what the rhythm guitars are singing) is a completely laughable song, ridiculous in every way. I’m sure some people would chuckle at it, or enjoy it realising that the band had lots of fun making it (which I don’t deny), but when I hear it, I want to crawl up in a cocoon and die of embarrassment. Even worse is “Steel Breaker”, one of the most uncomfortable and cringeworthy songs I have ever heard, mostly due to the rhythm guitars’ “BREEEE DOOM A NOM NOM NOM” that comes during the intro and chorus, combined with the general tough-guy 80’s hair metal styled lead vocals. I honestly would put “Steel Breaker” down as one of the few tracks that have physically made me ill out of how embarrassed I feel for the band. And yes, cue hordes of fans saying “you’re taking it too seriously!!11!”, and they would be right. Bands are allowed to have fun, and I shouldn’t laugh at them or feel embarrassed for them because they do. But I guess all this could be forgive, if the music here was actually good.

I’m not talking about the rakkatakkas or the bum bom bum bom or the breeedooms, I’m talking about the melodies and the songwriting, the core of this music. In my review of Ballads 'n' Bullets, I talked about how that was what made In Legend such a fantastic band, because underneath all the PIANO METAL, it was actually great music. The melodies were great, the progressions were great, it would still be great music if it were done on guitars with a hurdy-gurdy in place of the bass. But here, on Dawn of the Brave, I can’t say the same at all. Replace the ‘fake’ guitars and bass with real ones and you’ve got a generic power metal album that I would likely give the same rating to. Yes, the rating here has certainly been lowered due to the horrible singing and bad covers and the fact that this has zero of the energy encased in power metal due to an empty shell production (the sole reason I sometimes enjoy power metal), but none of the original songs even have a shred of decency to them, they’re just so incredibly bland. And when they’re not being bland, they start being cringeworthy to try and make up for it.

I think the final straw of “we’re being ridiculous to make up for the fact that we can’t write music” is the cover of The Final Countdown here. I mean whose bloody idea was that, to cover one of the most infamously infuriating and overplayed songs in the English language and make a fucking rakkatakka version of it? It basically screams “LOOK WE’RE A JOKE HAHA” in every way, a last sigh of desperation in an attempt to make this album interesting. I’ll give it to them though, “The Final Countdown” is a better song than anything original on this album, and that’s really saying something. But on the flip side, the “Into The West” is actually pretty good, but if you’re going to do an a cappella cover of a song, at least pick one that had instrumental backing in the first place. The cover has more or less the same structure as the original, but with singing instead of strings. It could actually be great, if they hadn’t included the syllabic backing vocals, which completely kill the piece. The enormous hook line is glorious, but I’m really crediting the songwriters here, aren’t I, not Van Canto (although the lead vocal performance here is admirable).

This is the first Van Canto album I have heard, and it’s likely to be the last. I guess that some may argue that my distaste towards this band could stem from Dawn of the Brave being one of their less qualified and musically interesting outputs, but having given this style of music a bit of thought, I’ve really come to the conclusion that in order for a great album to come out of this style, some sort of miracle would have to happen. Van Canto themselves state that people either love or hate them, I’m not really either, I just laugh at the fact that they think this style will ever get anywhere.

3.4

Originally written for my Facebook page/blog: www.facebook.com/neoprogisbestprog

666sharon666 Van Canto of Germany may do something a little different with their take on power metal in that other than the drums their music is entirely A Cappella, but they’ve never done much for me beyond being a novelty act, and one which has now been taken just that bit too far to remain entertaining.

Hero is the band’s second album and although I think this is their best, it too has never been more than a novelty for me. I think this is best explained by saying that it’s the number of the cover songs found on the album which are the most entertaining. They deliver A Cappella takes on Nightwish’s Wishmaster, Blind Guardian’s The Bard’s Song (In the Forest) and Iron Maiden’s Fear of the Dark along with a couple of others and a bunch of original songs. I know all three of the songs I mentioned well, and love the originals, so Van Canto’s versions are somewhat interesting, but that’s where my enjoyment of Hero ends, although I will give a mention to one of their own songs, Speed of Light, as I do quite enjoy this one too.

Hero is okay in small doses but it is at most a passable album which I’ll give a spin to on occasion for that novelty value alone. If I listen to it too much though I start to get irritated by the repetitive so called rakkatakka vocals.

adg211288 Break the Silence is the fourth studio album from so called a cappella power metal act Van Canto. There’s not much really to say in this introductory paragraph except to say or those who have missed this band in the past is that it’s basically five singers and a drummer, the presence of whom technically makes Van Canto not a true a cappella act, which requires the use of no instruments whatsoever. While two of the singers actually sing lead vocals, the other three imitate the typical metal instrumentation with their voices. There is actually some additional real instrumentation other than the drums on this album though, such as in the track Spelled in Waters.

Thinking about it in terms of being ‘on paper’ Van Canto sounds like a novelty or a gimmicky act right? Well in my opinion it would be true if Van Canto had done this for just the one (or maybe two at the most) albums. But Break the Silence is their fourth, which tells me that they’re actually pretty serious about this. There has never been a really great Van Canto album and this is no exception to that rule. In fact in their past three works with the exception of perhaps the odd track the only thing really interesting I found about them was the a cappella takes on classic metal tracks such as Metallica’s Battery, Nightwish’s Wishmaster or Blind Guardian’s The Bard’s Song: In The Forest. I always found their original material mostly lacking, and there is no improvement on this front on this album. It is more of the same, and more of the same would be getting beyond a joke if it was one.

Stylistically this has all the power metal style melody as a normal band would, and both the male and the female lead singer do actually have pretty great voices, but after a few tracks of the so called Rakkatakka vocals from the ‘instrumental singers’ any passing appeal that the music has goes away to be replaced by nothing but annoyance, mostly because of the fact that Break the Silence could actually be passable power metal record if they just dropped this a cappella stuff and actually found a guitarist and a bassist. It is just not entertaining anymore, sorry to say, not after four albums, and matters are made worse by the fact that what covers there are not really as of note than some of their previous, which doesn’t give the album as much interest on that front as the first three.

The only real surprises on Break the Silence are the aforementioned Spelled in Waters and also Master of the Wind. These are ballads, and are notable for not being a cappella. Spelled in Waters uses an actual guitar (played by Blind Guardian’s Marcus Siepen) as its music while Master of the Wind has some piano, but this is not enough to save the album from sounding like a boring novelty release. Additionally a cappella stuff aside this is an extremely typical power metal record that I’d even go as far to call generic, and if I want to hear this sort of thing then I’ll go for something with actual instrumentation throughout. The songs are mostly lyrically commercial as well, nothing new for power metal there really but as I said, if I want this there are countless bands who do it better with instruments and therefore might actually have some interesting riffs.

Credit where credit is due, the Rakkatakka vocals do have the metal rhythms done reasonably well, even though the release understandably lacks true heaviness, and these three guys definitely have a talent to pull this off, but try as I might, I cannot shake the image of them appearing on a reality TV show in the vein of Britain’s Got Talent.

Maybe I just don’t get them, but I see little of interest in what essentially sounds like a band that wants to play power metal but only their drummer could afford to buy his instrument. Van Canto are certainly right up there for being different but as Break the Silence proves that isn’t always a good thing. This would be entertaining were the band really not over-doing this a cappella stuff but really it’s getting rather ridiculous now as of this fourth album. There is little really to offer the more demanding listener on this album. It might give you a few smiles, but none of them will be as big as those given by the earlier releases, especially the 2008 album Hero, which at least has a stronger repertoire of covers to entertain with, as well as some pretty decent original material. Overall Break the Silence is listenable if somewhat embarrassing and its Van Canto’s weakest album yet in a run of poor to mediocre releases. It’s also a problem when the best track in the overall package, A Storm to Come, is a bonus track are therefore does not factor into the score given.

(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven, scored at 2.0/10, "Very Bad")