THE GOD THING

...Vanden Plas' first "proper" album for me - their debut was straight ahead metal which didnt really appeal to me. with the weirdly titled "The God Thing", we also get a weird cover with "the thing" but some really great music.

this was the second album i heard of VP after "Beyond Daylight" (actually, only a few songs off the album) and it goes something like this:

"Fire Blossom" - 2:55: quick and short opener, interesting as a set up to...7/10

"Rainmaker" - 6:39: catchy tune, nice riffing, shows the band trying something which is, at the same time, pure metal (as with their first album) and prgressive/ melodic. its a very good build up to their first prog-metal album...8/10

"Garden of Stones" - 7:47: starts quite slowly, with some interesting vocal interplay by Andy but the meat is in the second half, starting off with a mesmerising riff that would go on to be something of a Stephan Lill trademark...10/10

"In You: I Believe" - 4:29: kind of mid-tempo, a breather after that pounding-riff above. nice vocals, good cohesion of guitar/ keyboards...7/10

"Day I Die" - 6:04: Andy sounds a little strained on this, maybe purposely trying something different. but he gets it back with the ad-libbing outro...7/10

"Crown of Thorns" - 6:44: half piano/strings ballad, half pounding, chugging riff, i love the way VP steps up the tempo mid-way and then explodes into a final run towards the end...8/10

"We're Not God" - 7:12: amazing chorus, good solo...kind of the theme song of the album, i guess. one of my favourites...9/10

"Salt in My Wounds" - 7:21: VP really start to mix it up here. this one has a dose of lots of different things they would use again later...8/10

"You Fly" - 7:31: what a way to sign off the album. another one of my favourites, i especially like the slow beginning, the soft/( taunting?) middle and the outro riff + andy ad-libbing towards the end...10/10

overall, a good strong album. i would even go as far as saying one of their best but then, i'd probably say that about all their albums depending on which one i'm listening to. Vanden Plas is definitely in my top 5 favourite bands...