Accult

AcCult is the 1996 acoustic EP by German Prog metal masters Vanden Plas, which contains a wonderful cross-section of pre-1996 Vanden Plas material, as well as 3 nicely done covers. There are many bands who would be unable to pull off an experiment such as this with any kind of success; Vanden Plas use this EP as a successful platform to announce their progressive music abilities to the world. In addition, considering that this was released after just one full-length CD, there must have been a certain amount of risk in losing their metal audience.

AcCult contains 3 acoustic tracks from Vanden Plas' 1994 release "Colour Temple", the 3 aforementioned covers, ranging from Ray Charles to Marillion, two songs from a previous demo/single, plus "Spanish Rain", which I can't place into the 3 previous categories. If you are at all familiar with this band, you know that all participants are experts at their craft, be that vocalist or musicians. This is made clear here on this CD, as there can be no hiding any deficiencies in musicianship on an acoustic work such as this. Incidentally, there are better than 40 minutes of music here - not bad for an EP in my book.

Andy Kuntz sings his heart out, as he always does, and he single-handedly makes AcCult worth owning. He does not hold anything back, and sings both familiar and unfamiliar songs with as much power and energy as he does on the original metal versions, where applicable. He is also able to hold my interest in the quiet ballad passages, or the piano-vocal duet "Des hauts des bas".

The rest of the band are in top form as well. The keyboard is ever-present in the form of a piano, the drums and guitar parts are played with more energy than you might expect from an acoustic EP (see the fine guitar work in "Spanish Rain", for example); the bass does sound electric to my ears, but fits right in to the mix. We also have a couple of celli making a guest appearance in "Days of Thunder". My copy has a bonus track in "Raining In My Heart", which was Vanden Plas' very first single, released in 1986, and may be my favorite track on this CD.

Even for those who usually shy away from acoustic versions of songs, much less an entire CD of such stuff, this offering is a fine piece of music, and deserves your attention.