Review Summary: An excellent symphonic metal album.
Shortly after Visions of Atlantis’ Ethera, the entire band (aside from the drummer who was the founding member) left due to creative differences. This was on top of the original singer dying, and also losing their bassist. “Visions of Atlantis is history”, I told myself. Boy was I wrong. The original lineup mostly came back, and along came two new singers to replace the last two. The intention was to return to their previous style of music, and it worked. It was a glorious return to form and some of their more inspired material. Fast forward some time and we reach Pirates, the third album with their no longer new female singer, who is one of the best singers in symphonic metal.
Arena pleasing choruses are here aplenty, and the female/male duo is as potent as ever. This truly feels like a symphonic metal album, with a newly added choir, and all the extra strings and instruments you expect from the genre. The main singer, Clémentine, has a beautiful rock and roll voice, and she achieves operatic singing easily too. They can sound more Nightwish than Nightwish at times (see the tracks Melancholy Angel and Clocks), but they also fit snug alongside Sirenia and Epica. It’s not an original sound in the least, but the band stays interesting thanks to the stunning harmonies from both singers, and the especially captivating performance from Clémentine. The male singer is a powerful singer as well, although he strongly favours vibrato, the type of singing you hear in power metal. It’s definitely a cheesy album thanks to the male singer and choir, but I have yet to hear a symphonic metal album that’s not cheesy. It comes with the territory, whether you want it or not.
VOA are having fun with their successful formula found in The Deep & The Dark. It’s not the album of the year, but it’s another solid release from a band that can’t seem to pump out bad material lately. It’s also easily their best produced album, and the music within is admittedly pretty. Songs like Pirates Will Return and Master the Hurricane show the band at the top of their game. For fans of this band and this genre, there’s nothing really to dislike, although not much stands out when compared to other bands. This never proves to be a problem, though. One catchy song plays after the next, with beautiful singing, and top-notch choruses. There is no doubt this is an excellent album.
