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Place Vendome - Thunder In The Distance

Published October 25 2013


*
=Staff's pick

Talk To Me*
Power Of Music
Broken Wings
Lost In Paradise*
It Can't Rain Forever
Fragile Ground
Hold Your Love
Never Too Late
Heaven Lost*
My Heart Is Dying
Break Out
Maybe Tomorrow
Thunder In The Distance*


Genre Melodic Hard Rock
Michael Kiske
Vocals
Tracks 13
Uwe Reitenauer
Guitar
Running time 56 Min.
Dennis Ward
Guitar
Label Frontiers Records
Dennis Ward
Bass
Release 01 November 2013
Dirk Bruinenberg
Drums
Country Germany, USA, Holland
Gunther Werno
Keyboard
Producer Dennis Ward
Similar artists ---

Place Vendome is living proof of what we in the metal community like to refer to as a record label product. An abomination that often has been absent in our small world, but a phenomenon frequently occurring in popular music with loads of funds to place in radio and TV shows. This project differs partly from those products, yet it was founded by Frontiers' president Serafino Perugino, who handpicked a few musicians to complete a lineup that, nearly intact, now releases the band's third album.

All albums to this date have had different songwriters and now the songs' basics head more towards AOR than ever before. So if this is your first acquaintance with this international unit, expect no power metal when seeing Michael Kiske's name on top. This release have strong focus, unsurprisingly, on the German's vocals though. If you're a fan of his past performances, you'll find much of his efforts here satisfactory as well, although he's wise enough to stay away from the highest notes and instead finds himself at a level that he masters in full.

From time to time, it feels like the well-played melodic hard rock gets neglected when most of the attention is heavily concentrated to get the best possible out of the lead vocalist. However, a few songs light up the sky to form an accurate musical experience, but there's also a few ones that probably shouldn't have left the status of a demo recording. The record also seems a bit monotonous, as many songs progress in a tempo of leisure and this album never turn out killer to me. A decent melodic record that gets credited with 5 chalices.

See also review of: Close To The Sun
See also: interview with Michael Kiske

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

7

5

6

8

5

 
Summary



5 chalices of 10 - Tobbe


Related links:

www.michael-kiske.de
www.myspace.com/placevendme
www.facebook.com/officialmichaelkiskecontact