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Review Summary: The renewer of Power Metal goes new Considering they're still quite unknown on this website, I think it'll hurt no one to describe the band a little.
Van Canto is a German band who plays Power Metal, but who decided to give it a twist by playing it A Capella, which led to the tag I saw somewhere (I can't remember where) "A Capella Epic Power Metal". It describes quite well the sound of the band, who already released 6 albums before this one, which were quite redundant when you arrived to the latest records.
This band brought a renewal to Power Metal (which was already redundant since the beginning of the 2000s) by saying "Hey we got balls of steel, we'll take this and put it A Capella" and to be honest it was a good idea, I think we got there one of the most original bands of the century. But their albums, although it sounded good on paper, were not equally good. For example, their 2016 Voices of Fire was a concept-album with Gimli (!!) telling us a story between each track. It sounds epic, doesn't it? Well I found it only it broke the rhythm of the album. But this is not the point here.
They announced this album a bit after the departure of their former-lead singer Philip Dennis "Sly" Schunke, and they announced the identity of their new singer with a short song, which wasn't that bad but wasn't really promising. To be honest, as a great fan of this band, I was afraid of what could happen. Then the album was released, I couldn't listen to it before a few weeks and I saw no review of it so I was even more afraid. Then I got into it, and I found it okay, but not as good as a few previous albums. Like I knew the new singer had a really good voice, but I felt like he was unexploited. I was not disappointed nor satisfied, I was just there like "Okay this is meh, but I'll give it another try". So indeed I tried another time, and on top of that I had added the whole album to my "Eclectic Random" playlist in order to fall on them, and each time I had one of these songs, I had quite a good time, and when I went back on the album, I had a better listening-time, because I knew a few songs, I knew how they would end up, I was able to make connections between them, it had gone for a good album.
But if I think it's a good album, then why do I only put it a 3?
Well that's a legitimate question, well it's just because it's basically Van Canto without Sly. To me Hagen is a better vocalist (and from the comments I saw about Sly, I think I won't be the only one thinking so, sorry Sly I still love you) but as I mentioned before, his voice on this album might not be, in my opinion (I prefer telling you I'm a musician but no real singer), made of all he could give. And that's why I'll end up this review with a question for you. When you're done listening to this album, would you think next record could be even better if they gave more intensity and importance to Hagen's voice?
My 3 favorite tracks :
- Back In The Lead
- Javelin
- Hells Bells (AC/DC Cover)
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"Considering they're still quite unknown on this website, I think it'll hurt no one to describe the band a little."
*I'd eliminate this, narrating what you're about to write isn't generally considered too professional
"Van Canto is a German band who plays Power Metal"
*You do not need to capitalize genres
"It describes quite well the sound of the band, who already released 6 albums before this one, which were quite redundant when you arrived to the latest records."
*Sounds awkward especially going between present and past tense, consider rephrasing as well as using 'six' instead of 6, which is nit-picky but technically more correct
"This band brought a renewal to Power Metal (which was already redundant since the beginning of the 2000s) by saying "Hey we got balls of steel, we'll take this and put it A Capella" and to be honest it was a good idea, I think we got there one of the most original bands of the century."
*Run-on sentence; consider splitting at "To be honest"
"But their albums, although it sounded good on paper, were not equally good."
*Plural agreement is out of whack, should be 'they' not 'it'
It sounds epic, doesn't it"
*no fault of yours here, site bug corrects ? to ". I keep a full-length question-mark character (？) handy to copy paste into where I'd normally be asking a question.
"Well I found it only it broke the rhythm of the album. But this is not the point here."
Extra 'it' in the first part of your sentence. Also, this should probably just be joined by a comma...sentences that start with "But" or "And" are not gramatically professional.
I won't keep nitpicking the whole review, but you get the point. Spellcheck doesn't catch everything so read it out loud to yourself or someone else before posting to make sure it flows as desired. We also have a review proofreading thread under the "site forum' link at the bottom of the page.
It's your first review so there's plenty of time for fine-tuning your prose and overall style.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
@SowingSeason, thanks for the feedback, it was something I wrote quite quickly, I didn't even put in what's meant to be in a review, that is to say what does the album sound like. I realized it quite late, my bad. About the review proofreading thread, I didn't know about it because I never went to the forums, I'll definitely check it out. So I guess I'll write it all again, take account of your remarks and come back with a good review (at least I hope so). Thanks a lot for your reviews, and also sorry for my poor and redundant English, this is not my mother tongue so I may be struggling sometimes.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
@SowingSeason, thanks for the feedback, it was something I wrote quite quickly, I didn't even put in what's meant to be in a review, that is to say what does the album sound like. I realized it quite late, my bad. About the review proofreading thread, I didn't know about it because I never went to the forums, I'll definitely check it out. So I guess I'll write it all again, take account of your remarks and come back with a good review (at least I hope so). Thanks a lot for your reviews, and also sorry for my poor and redundant English, this is not my mother tongue so I may be struggling sometimes.
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No need to apologize! And you definitely don't need to write it again!
For English not being your primary language this actually is a decent review...when I critique and give feedback I always assume the person is fluent but that's not always the case.
Keep writing and things will start to sound smoother, this is a great place to develop your skills because there are so many other reviews to read and users who are willing to offer feedback.
| | | Album Rating: 3.0
@SowingSeason, yeah sorry, I just saw it, I had network issues on yesterday, the page was loading on and on so I assumed it didn't send it.
Thanks. Well I'm trying to become fluent but I often make mistakes because I'm not fully-focused.
I definitely will, because writing is one of my passions. Although this kind of writing is something I'm not used to, but I think I can do better.
Thanks again 
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