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At Vance - Dragonchaser


*
=Staff's pick

Dragonchaser*
Ages of Glory*
Beethoven, 5th Symphony*
Heaven Can Wait
The Winner Takes it All
My Bleeding Heart
Two Kings*
Too Late*
Ases Death


Genre Power Metal
Oliver Hartmann
Vocals
Tracks 9
Olaf Lenk
Guitar
Runningtime 52 Min.
Rainald König
Guitar
Label Shark Records
Jochen Schnur
Bass
Release 26 Feb. 2001
Uli Müller
Drums
Country Germany
Jürgen Lucas
Keyboards
Similar artists ---

Dragonchaser is the third album from the Germany- based power metal band At Vance and fans won't be disappointed with this one either.
Olaf Lenk's guitar playing is tremendously great as to be expected and the vocals of Oliver Hartmann are very good as well. The album begins with the bombastic title-track where Olaf truly proves what a great guitarist he is.
The odyssey continues with the fast and melodic Ages of Glory and the somewhat slower, but still worth headbangin' to, song Crucified.

But then we have sadly come to a part of the album that makes me a little disappointed. Though Olaf once again proves his mastering of his instrument when the band makes Beethoven's 5th symphony go metal the following three songs make the album lose its original high tempo and feeling.

One of these three is an ABBA- cover (The Winner Takes it All) and as a Swedish guy I perhaps should be happy to this tribute. But as I just mentioned, the power metal feeling disappears as there's a ballad, (My Bleeding Heart), among these three too. The track Heaven can Wait has a very solemn touch to it but it's still a bit slow for my rapid metal craving taste.
The two following songs though, Two Kings and Too Late brings back the smile on my face again and the instrumental finish Ases Death contributes with a moving final touch.

The production however gets the highest mark possible from me when it comes to the sound. That's really great and the album is very well produced, mixed and mastered which only is to be expected when it comes to German power metal.
But as I mentioned above it, wouldn't have hurt if the producer had insisted to replace the ballad with a more true power metal tune or two…

So then it has come to the final judgement for Dragonchaser. I really like this album despite my earlier remarks and that is of course due to Olaf Lenks outstanding guitar bending and Oliver Hartmanns vocals.
The title track climbs very high on my personal best-of-all-times metal songs list and the other rapid ones can make all other power metal bands a bit jealous too. Dragonchaser will have its sequel, Only Human, on March 25th and we'll just have to wait and see what At Vance has in store for us 'til then.

I know I will be one of many fans queuing to get my hands on that one because a true metal collection wouldn't be as true without the guys in At Vance!

Production
Vocals
Compositions

9

8

7

 
Summary



7 chalices of 10 - Mat

Related links:

www.at-vance.de