AT VANCE — Ride the Sky (review)

AT VANCE — Ride the Sky album cover Album · 2009 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
2.5/5 ·
Stephen
At Vance's camp is in disarray after long-time singer, Mats Leven, and the rest members left the band, leaving the mastermind and guitarist Olaf Lenk alone, but Lenk decided the show must goes on. He successfully recruited Rick Altzi from Thunderstone, and the new line-up was completed by bassist Wolfman and drummer Alex Landenburg who had played in Axxis and Annihilator before. AFM still trusted them for another record and along came "Ride The Sky" in 2009.

This album style is rooted to the traditional heavy metal and hard rock style with some neoclassical power touch. Altzi did a pretty good job filling the spot with a similar heavy and raspy timbre as Leven. One thing that troubled me is most of the materials on the album seemed to be rushed out and missed some careful crafting. I can see some potential in songs like "Last In Line", "End of Days", or "Power", but they're lack of something punchy and strong kicks, dragging them to be a decent songs.

The album highlight felt into the title track with a monstrous fist-pumping chorus and "Salvation Day" with a Celtic-sounding riffs and stunning progression from Verse to Chorus. The latter is the best track in my opinion, but with only two powerful songs and suffered with several fillers such as "Burning Like Fire", "Wishing Well", or "Farewell", I don't think "Ride The Sky" should be released as a full length album. They should have thought of releasing an EP or a compilation with couple of new songs otherwise this could be a mediocre effort, if not bad.

However, the good thing is I can see a good chemistry going on with the new line-up, at least they performed a tight play together, and I'm hopeful for a better future release. If you're a big fan of the band, I don't see any harm in buying this album to complete your catalogue, otherwise, you have to look for their earlier effort for maximum pleasure.
Share this review
more

Review Comments

Post a public comment below | Send private message to the reviewer
Please login to post a shout
No shouts posted yet. Be the first member to do so above!

Review Index

Member Zone

Username:
Password:
Stay signed in

Metal Subgenres

Artists Alpha-index

MMA TOP 5 Metal ALBUMS

Rating by members, ranked by custom algorithm
Albums with 30 ratings and more
Master of Puppets Thrash Metal
METALLICA
Buy this album from our partners
Paranoid Heavy Metal
BLACK SABBATH
Buy this album from our partners
Moving Pictures Hard Rock
RUSH
Buy this album from our partners
Powerslave NWoBHM
IRON MAIDEN
Buy this album from our partners
Rising Heavy Metal
RAINBOW
Buy this album from our partners

New Metal Artists

New Metal Releases

The Goblin Sessions Heavy Metal
THEM
Buy this album from MMA partners
Tormenta De Arena Metalcore
VORAGO
Buy this album from MMA partners
Infinite Metalcore
FUTURE GHOST
Buy this album from MMA partners
Heretic Melodic Death Metal
SUNCINDER
Buy this album from MMA partners
The Skull Burned Wearing Hell Like A Life Vest As The Night Wept Mathcore
FRONTIERER
Buy this album from MMA partners
More new releases

New Metal Online Videos

Future Ghost - Wolves (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Future Ghost - Nemesis Game (Official Music Video)
FUTURE GHOST
Bosh66· 1 day ago
Harrowed TwentyTenVideo
HARROWED
Bosh66· 3 days ago
Sunmancer - Realms of Dilemma (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
Sunmancer - Lower Cavalier (Official Visualizer)
SUNMANCER
Bosh66· 8 days ago
More videos

New MMA Metal Forum Topics

More in the forums

New Site interactions

More...

Latest Metal News

members-submitted

More in the forums

Social Media

Follow us
Follow us on Twitter Become a Facebook fan RSS Feed