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. 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. 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. 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.įor 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. 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. They recruited new vocalist Hagen Hirschmann and soon went to work on their next release. 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.
#Van canto dawn of the brave download full
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. 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. 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. 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”. 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. 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. 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. 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.
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.