Van Canto, To the power of eight

Summer has been pretty slow in terms of albums, as it usually is. And with no concerts and festivals to write about, it took me ages to post something. Again…

I’ve been gathering the courage to review Van Canto’s To the power of eight for some time now. As you may remember, I was very disappointed by their last release and it seemed like Sly left a bit of a black hole behind, so I wasn’t particularly enthusiastic about a new record. It seems that Van Canto themselves weren’t entirely happy with Sly leaving either, as they invited him back for “a couple of tracks” and ended up keeping him for the entire album. Let me say, it was an excellent decision, and not necessarily for vocal reasons (as I still like Hagen and think he would’ve done a good job on his own). Even though Sly wasn’t involved in the creative process, as far as I know, it looks like his presence just brings out the best in the band and thankfully their characteristic joy and enthusiasm are back.

Right off the bat, Dead by the Night has more kick and spirit than the entire Trust in rust put together and I feel my expectations rising. The grunts are rather surprising, Inga seems to be back in shape and it all sounds awesome. And almost everything that follows is equally good.

With the exception of a short respiro in the gentle Turn back time and a somewhat cheesy chorus in From the end, the energy is intense and contagious right to the last track. It’s hard to listen to this album and sit still. The melodies are catchy and the three voices work really well together, especially in Falling down where they each do their own thing, while still being in a lovely harmony. Another special mention goes to Heads Up High, which is super infectious and another favourite of mine. I can feel the power going through my headphones, to my gut and down to my ever-kicking-in-rhythmic-excitement feet.

The metal covers (Raise your horns from Amon Amarth, Run to the Hills from Iron Maiden and AC-DC’s Thunderstruck) sound pretty cool, as this is what Van Canto started being known for, and they still do a great job at adapting classic metal hymns to their rakataka style. I’m not really feeling I want it all, though. I suppose there’s some bias here, as I love the original and think no one can compare to Freddie Mercury in terms of emotional intensity, but this re-edition is a bit too merry for my taste.

But aside from this minor misstep, it truly looks like they’re back to their cheerful selves and To the power of eight sounds like they had a ton of fun, which in turn made me have a lot of fun as well. So I’m glad that their previous insipidness was just a glitch in the matrix and now we can once more bounce our heads and sing along to Van Canto’s run dun duuuns.