VISION DIVINE – Blood And Angels’ Tears (2024)
VISION DIVINE, one of the finest Italian prog metal prime movers are back for good, once again delivering a handful of glorious and smooth progressive collection on their upcoming opus “Blood And Angels’ Tears“.
An epic saga unfolding across two monumental records, with “Blood And Angels’ Tears” as its first part: set in a distant epoch before known civilizations, the narrative revolves around three angels banished from heaven for their indecision during the cataclysmic war between Lucifer and Archangel Michael.
Each album is a chapter in a grand movie-like tale: themes of redemption, unity and resilience permeate the melodic orchestrations and haunting vocals.
Majesty is the best word to describe “Blood And Angels’ Tears” where each note and lyric merges in perfect conjunction. Production & mix are wonderful, essential for this kind of huge musical delivery to work.
Simply put, ‘Blood and Angels’ Tears’ is one of the best VISION DIVINE albums. It strikes a perfect balance between the band’s hypermelodic power metal sound and their adventurous progressive metal songwriting.
As the first part of a diptych, it also avoids the pitfall of many power/prog concept albums by being pretty much exactly as long as it should be.
There are a few guest singers on the album – most notably Fates Warning’s Ray Alder – but even so, the most impressive voice on the album is without a doubt Ivan Giannini. He’s does an incredible job.
Another thing VISION DIVINE deserve a lot of praise is for making sure that every song can stand on its own without the conceptual environment of the album. Each song consists of memorable moments.
Highlight ‘Once Invincible’ is the prime example of this, with its intense riffing and supremely catchy chorus. On the other hand, more than a few songs are surprisingly adventurous by Italian power metal standards.
Even the calmer moments on “Blood And Angels’ Tears” are far above average. This is one aspect where Southern European bands often fail, but with a voice as powerful as Giannini’s and a power ballad as expertly written as ‘When Darkness Comes’, VISION DIVINE shows their peers how it’s done. The proggy middle section only enhances it.
‘Preys’ probably has the catchiest riff on the album, and the whole song is impeccably arranged. But really, the whole album is likely to please the metal crowd (‘The Broken Past’, ‘The Ballet of Blood and Angels’ Tears’) as well as the more melodic prog-inclined listeners (‘Go East’, ‘Dice and Dancers’).
‘Blood and Angels’ Tears’ is truly a spectacular album that makes full use of VISION DIVINE’s potential. There are stellar vocals, excellent solos, and fantastic arrangements. But all of that would have been meaningless if the songwriting wasn’t this good.
On concept albums, the compositions often suffer from needing to adhere to a storyline, but as songwriters, the guys in VISION DIVINE are simply too smart for that.
The result is one of the greatest melodic progressive / power metal albums in the last few years.
Highly Recommended
01 – War In Heaven
02 – The Ballet Of Blood And Angels’ Tears
03 – Once Invincible
04 – Drink Our Blood
05 – When Darkness Comes
06 – Preys
07 – A Man On A Mission
08 – Go East
09 – The Broken Past
10 – Dice And Dancers
11 – Lost
Ivan Giannini (vocals)
Olaf Thorsen (guitar)
Federico Puleri (guitar)
Alessio Lucatti (keys)
Andrea ‘Tower’ Torricini (bass)
Matt Peruzzi (drums)
Pre order:
www.amazon.co.uk/Blood-Angels-Ltd-Digi-Vision-Divine/dp/B0D94FMG2V
