The 25th Hour

Since discovering The Perfect Machine a few years back, I've developed a very fond affection for Italian power/prog experts Vision Divine. Michele Luppi is admittedly the single greatest recipient of my affection, but the trio of albums that the band made during his time with them illustrate the entire group at their creative and musical peak. The 25th Hour is the final album of this trio, and probably the most mellow of the three.

Like most of the band's work, and specifically with Luppi, most every piece that was composed for this album is supremely smooth and memorable. A relatively reserved rhythm guitar sound (definitely not as prominent or as edgy as that heard on The Perfect Machine) combined with a great deal of synth work ensures that as usual, Luppi's vocals are the primary focus. Without coming off as too much of a fanboy (and it's already painfully obvious that I am), there's a bloody good reason he's considered one of the very best singers in metal, and his final tour with Vision Divine is nothing short of exemplary in that regard. He is as distinctive as he is high and clear, and the trademark sound of his own layered vocal tracks is what makes songs like "Eyes of a Child" so outstanding and emotionally powerful.

Enough about Luppi. After all I'm shortchanging the real mastermind of Vision Divine, Olaf Thorsen, who has turned this band into the metal equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci: inventive and visionary. Despite Vision Divine's reputation as a relatively "light" metal project, none of his guitar or arrangement work since Stream of Consciousness has been anything other than terrific. Actually, the lack of extreme crunch or ridiculous speed is probably something that endears VD so deeply to a number of people, myself included. The music here is so carefully crafted and thoughtful that you can almost feel a map being drawn by the wandering notes, the tasteful synth lines, and the acrobatic, lushly layered vocals and guitar. It's enough to give me chills.

The 25th Hour takes the listener on a journey through the mind of a madman whose last sanity, his guardian angel, has died. This is a continuation of the story begun, I believe, in Stream of Consciousness, and includes some of the melodic themes from that album. The band tells the story much better than I, and while I always prefer and recommend hardcopies over digital versions of albums, The 25th Hour is an absolute must in this regard. The liner notes include as much text as the lyrics, and you're truly missing the whole experience if you don't have the complete package.

My favorite tracks here are "Eyes of a Child", "Alpha & Omega", and probably the brief but stunning finale, "Ascension" because of the great heights that it rises to,as well as the flawless finish that it puts on such a wonderful album. I haven't moved on to Vision Divine's most recent offering without Michele Luppi yet, just because I feel that something profound will be missing from the equation. I am sure that I will someday soon, but I'm certain that this trio of albums, including the third and final, will remain my favorites. The 25th Hour is a sweeping, intelligent, and evocatively thoughtful composition which ties up any musical loose ends that the band might have had. It's a very different experience from the first two albums of this era of the band, but certainly of the same heart and quality of work. Bravo Vision Divine, an impeccable finish to a masterful storytelling and musical experience.

Originally written for www.blackwindmetal.blogspot.com/

Many see this band as the offshoot of pioneering Italian power/progressive revival band Labyrinth, but the truth is that it is the continuation of that project under a different name. The game of musical chairs that has gone on between said band, this one, and Rhapsody is something of a side issue, but the continued influence of Carlo Magnani (aka Olaf Thorsen) upon this particular project is what makes all the difference. There is something unique about his riffs, his half Timo Tolkki and half John Petrucci oriented brand of lead playing, and his songwriting that was lost on Labyrinth’s work after “Sons Of Thunder” that endures on this album, and all of the albums that has preceded it. It manifests itself not so much in a direct contradiction to the original Labyrinth sound, nor with that of the failed attempt at emulation in that band’s self-titled release after he left, but in a purer, higher quality version of that characteristic sound. It is thus free of any and all influences outside of the power/progressive paradigm, such as the decrepit nu-metal seepage that tainted Labyrinth’s last two albums.

The Michele Luppi trilogy, of which “The 25th Hour” is the third and final installment, is characterized by a smoother and much more progressive character than the two Fabio Lione albums that preceded it. For all of the accusations that Lione has one of the most flowery sounding voices in power metal, he does make time for rougher edged vocalizations at regular intervals, and sounds almost like a thrash metal singer when compared with Luppi’s squeaky clean work. The music is likewise a few steps closer to the Dream Theater character of more complex riffing, less of a symphonic element, and a smoother mix of guitars that point a little closer to an early 90s Fates Warning character than heavier edged sound of “Send Me An Angel”. Of the three albums in this trilogy, this album is sort of a middle ground between the ultra smooth character of “Stream Of Consciousness” and the rougher one of “The Perfect Machine”, having a mellow rhythm guitar sound but a dry drum production and a toned down keyboard presence in terms of atmosphere as well as those techno-like devices that were also occasionally employed before.

There’s no shortage of catchy moments on here to keep the power metal side of the equation constant, despite all the changes that have been going on in the genre in recent years. Faster songs such as the title track and “Eyes Of A Child” have choruses in line with the memorable melodic character established on “Return To Heaven Denied”. Time is made for heavier moments on “Alpha & Omega” and “A Perfect Suicide”, both of which exert some strong thrash tendencies, although the choruses still remain in that consonant, sing along mode. All the while, clichés in this genre are made new again with a fresh and adaptive interpretation where the drums are not locked into a dogmatic formula of double bass sections with occasional breaks for a groove to develop during a bridge section, the guitars find ways to keep themselves busy beyond the obligatory lead exchange with the keyboards, and Luppi’s vocals go between powerful solo sections to dense, Freddie Mercury sounding harmonies that seem to come out of nowhere, yet always fit what accompanies them.

This basically outclasses “A Perfect Machine” and just falls a tiny bit behind “Send Me An Angel” and “Stream Of Consciousness”. All in all a solid release from a band that has been written off as the side project of one guy from a band that got out of power metal a few years ago. It’s a fitting end to a brilliant collaboration between a seasoned guitar shredder and his band of competent players, and one of the more unique voices in this style. After this Fabio Lione rejoined the fold and another album has recently come out challenging the previous 4 and this one, but this is definitely something to look into if you followed Labyrinth to any extent before their self-titled album, and if you have a taste for the clean cut, Italian version of power metal with a bit of an American progressive metal edge to it.

Originally submitted to (www.metal-observer.com) on May 16, 2009.

Who wants a tremendous power metal album, that's fresh, perfectly executed, and sounds nothing like Helloween, Iced Earth or Blind Guardian?

The following power metal review brought to you by Vision Divine.

I'm pretty sure Olaf Thorsen, mastermind behind Vision Divine, is a genius. After all, he's largely responsible for Labyrinth "Return to Heaven Denied," one of the best power metal albums ever created. The man got the short end of the stick when, in the process of following up RTHD, their collaboration with Neil Kernon blew up during the production of 2001's Sons of Thunder. Everybody was on him (including myself) for his crappy mix and the impression everywhere was the man was impossible to work with. The friction sent him on his way while the rest of the band kept on but the fact remains, when he left that band they suffered big time. Now Olaf, pursuing his own interests, took off on his own turning his side project with Rhapsody's Fabio Lione, Vision Divine, into a full time band. Their next album post Labyrinth "Stream of Consciousness" was fantastic. It was the best thing next to Return to Heaven Denied and it showcased an amazing vocalist in Michele Luppi. It was a little light for my taste but there was no denying how incredible the writing was.

Fast forward 4 years, with A Perfect Machine coming between, and the new album, the 25th Hour, is sitting in my player recalling it all over again. It's perfect. A continuation of the story from Stream of Consciousness, this album is flawless, song oriented melodic power metal with a nice dose of crunch to keep you going. The vocals and melodies kill on every song and the album flows from one song to the next like a concept album should, as if you were just turning another page. It doesn't miss a beat. When you can't pick favorite song because, whether they are speedy heavy metal numbers or ballads they all hit you like a ton of bricks, you're listening to something great. Albums like this don't come around too often. This is a Nightfall in Middle Earth, Streets, Holy Land, One Hour By The Concrete Lake type release for me. All of which are top 20 all time releases and play the same to my ears, incredible.

The genius of the man comes in the fact that nothing here sounds contrived, nothing sounds the same. It sounds like someone taking absolute freedom within their interests and nailing everything they tried. It's progressive/power metal for sure but there is no comparison to any other band and each song is an entity to itself. As of right now, this is the best power metal album of the year IMO and that's something I never would have expected. Furthermore, I wouldn't be surprised if next year I could say definitively that this is better than that all mighty benchmark known as Return to Heaven Denied.

‘Stream Of Consciousness’ from 2004 marked a new beginning for Vision Divine. Not only was it the first proof that band leader Olaf Thörsen could carry on without his former band mates from Labÿrinth, it was also the first album with the relatively unknown singer Michele Luppi. This man’s impressive range combined with Thörsen’s strong songwriting and Oleg Smirnoff’s unusual keyboard textures resulted in the band’s best album to date. And in fact the best album to ever have emerged from Italy if you ask me. The follow-up ‘The Perfect Machine’ was good, but not as magical as ‘Stream Of Consciousness’. And now, with ‘The 25th Hour’ being another quality album, ‘The Perfect Machine’ seems to be destined to be forgotten. However, that is a compliment for ‘The 25th Hour’ rather than bringing ‘The Perfect Machine’ down.

Once again, Thörsen had to let go a couple of key figures from his band. Original bass player Andrea ‘Tower’ Torricini (ironically, replaced by former Labÿrinth-bassist Christiano Bertocchi) left te band in order to persue a carreer as professional squash player and Oleg Smirnoff quit music. But once again, this seems to be some kind of bloodletting. ‘The 25th Hour’ is quite a refreshing album. Vision Divine sounds rawer than ever on this album, song-wise as well as production-wise. And that suits the Italians just well!

In essence, nothing really changed in the Vision Divine-sound. Olaf Thörsen’s riffs are cut from the same mould as before, Michele Luppi still has the same amazing range as before and the solo’s by both him and his biggest fan Frederico Puleri are still in the same vein: fast and technical. But it seems like Thörsen decided to take that sound down a slightly more progressive lane. The album is a little more modern and aggressive at some points as well. Just check out the verses to the kick-ass ‘Alpha & Omega’, my favorite track on the album, rhythmical, agressive, lots of breaks and still the melodies are handled very capably by Luppi. From the playing and the songwriting to the production, Vision Divine seems to have taken a slightly rawer path this time. And figuring that Timo Tolkki, usually responsible for a super-clean production, produced this album, that actually came as quite a surprise.

As the art work already gave away, ‘The 25th Hour’ is the lyrical continuation of ‘Stream Of Consciousness’. The booklet extensively explains the entire story and as I haven’t had the time to really get into that too much, I won’t go into that too deep. But even if you don’t know the concept behind both albums, you’ll notice that the ‘Stream Of Consciousness’-theme reoccurs in the outro ‘Ascension’, as well as the first bars to the solo of ‘Stream Of Consciousness’ closer ‘Identities’. ‘The 25th Hour’ has a theme of its own as well, as displayed in the beautiful intro ‘My Angel Died’ and later returning in the instrumental ‘Waiting For The Dawn’.

Even though I quite miss Oleg Smirnoff’s typical keyboard sounds, ‘The 25th Hour’ hardly suffers from his departure. Maybe that’s because the band slightly refreshed their sound, just like when Smirnoff entered the band. Usually Smirnoff and Thörsen write the music and Luppi writes the vocal melodies. Things have slightly changed in that matter. Luppi even wrote a complete song on this album (the beautiful ‘Heaven Calling’) and ‘A Perfect Suicide’ was written by Luppi and Christiano Bertocchi. The latter even has the best intro of the album and one of the most kick-ass verses (in which new drummer Alessandro Bissa really shines!) the band has done so far.

Highlights for me personally include the aforementioned ‘Alpha & Omega’ (I’ve said it before, but I just want to accentuate how cool this track is), the opening title track, which sets the mood for the rest of the album perfectly, the fast and – for Vision Divine measures – furious ‘Eyes Of A Child’ (don’t let the goosebumps the piano intro gives you mislead you!) and ‘A Perfect Suicide’.

And as said before: the good elements on this album are the same as always: Michele Luppi’s unbelievable vocals, the killer guitar work and just the general songwriting, I just think the slightly different direction on this album is exactly what the band needed at this point. Many bands in the Power Metal scene just cross the line when they’re on the verge of stagnation. Vision Divine has the guts to explore new paths and does that in a way that should please both critics and hardcore fans; the catchy choruses, sweeping solos and general sense of melody stay, the keyboard patterns and general feel evolve over time.

Vision Divine has once again succeeded in making a quality Metal album. A lot of people I know have an aversion of what they call “homo-erotic Italian Power Metal”. This is one of those albums that might even make those people a little more open minded towards the genre. And let’s face it, Vision Divine is one of the rare exponents of that scene that actually are good. Another one is Thörsen-era Labÿrinth. I sense a pattern here...