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