• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5

I didn't hate the last Vanishing Point album I reviewed (2014's Distant Is the Sun) but I wasn't overly impressed with it either. 2020's Dead Elysium is a different story. This band still plays grandiose and melodic power metal in the vein of Masterplan, Black Majesty, Symphony X and the like, which gives you a clear idea of what the music on this album sounds like, but the songwriting is much improved. The title track booms from the speakers with a thundering bottom end and nasty riff before giving way to more melodic cuts like "Salvus" which convey a greater depth of emotion via more introspective vocal lines. The band rocks back and forth between these styles effortlessly and the album's nearly one-hour duration seems somehow shorter. Vanishing Point haven't strayed from the "melodic metal" formula followed by a thousand other bands, but they have written an album that reminds you of what that formula sounds like when it is done properly.