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I think your Nightwish comparisons are somewhat justified, but they definitely don't sound like a Nightwish rip-off. I reviewed this CD, as well, and actually liked it very much. Yeah, the singer does sound similar to Tarja on occassion, but musically they resemble a band like Sonata Artica much more than Nightwish! This is essentially a power metal album, Nightwish is not power metal at all.

You were correct in your review of the male vocals, and even though the comparisons to Nightwish are appropriate, they're not to the extent of what you claim. This album deserves much higher than a 45 out of 100, closer to 75/80.

total crap, no replay value whtasoever,download and delete,dont waste your money,bands like this give metal a bad name.this album its only useful if you want to take a girl to bed and then again she might think you are a wuss.


Ben: Pop Metal? two words combined that dont make sense.
Great Review.

With the passing of the years trends fade away and only true metal remains.

I dont know what you were listening to, Ben, but this album is fantastic. Every song is a winner, the poorest song of the whole album is State Of Suspense, and even that song is still good.



After spinning the album a few times, i hear NO simalarities to Nightwish, except that Nicole does sound like Tarja. And why not, Tarja is a great singer. I dont think Nicole deliberately wanted to sing like Tarja, but because of the simarlarities, Nightwish fans would enjoy this album.
To say this is Nightwish gone pop is completely stupid and I expected better from you, Ben. Coming into the review, thinking this band is a Nightwish clone was your first mistake, because Nightwish set the bar very high and no band has come close..yet.

Yes, Visions Of Atlantis do have the "happy" power metal elements, but to say pop is wrong.
I did hear is tinsy similarity to evanesence, mainly due to Mario's vocals. They do sound "normal", like commercial mainstream, like the male singer from evanesence...but its just a tiny hint there and dont let that put you off from enjoying this band.



Again, I know Oceanborn and Wishmaster back to front, and I heard nothing that would make me say this is like those two albums. Oceanborn and Wishmaster are far more symphonic, faster and heavier. Yes Visions Of Atlantis use orchestral instruments in their music, but nowhere near the high amount used by Nightwish with those 2 albums.



If your not into that sound, so be it. As for me, the intro to Realm Of Fantasy is great and adds to the song as a whole. Send Me A Light, Pharaoh's Repentance & Last Shut Of Your Eyes are fantastic tracks while Winternight could be the best ballad I have ever heard. Almost the "Perfect Ballad". If you want to hear Nicole's vocals at her best, listen to Winternight.
The use of the keyboards totally improve this album and it is all balanced together wonderfully.



Realm Of Fantasy, Send Me A Light, Cast Away....and others. All have great riffs and great short solos. But remember with this style of music, solos arent used/needed very much.

I think that believing this band is trying to be like Nightwish is totally wrong. Nicole's vocals is the only thing that would remind you of Nightwish. And your score (45/100) shows me that you were expecting something along the lines that Nightwish would give us...they didnt (obviously) you were let down and your 45 shows your anger of that.
If you wanted to state similar bands to Visions Of Atlantis, look no further than Freedom Call, Fairyland and Sonata Arctica. They too play the "happy" power metal style, and use a lot of keyboards and orchestral instruments.
Dont get sucked in to this lame review, people. This is not a band wanting to be the next Nightwish, although they would have influenced them. The only thing similar to Nightwish is the vocals, thats it....
I gave this album 96/100. If you are a fan of Freedom Call, Sonata Arctica or bands similar to Fairyland and yes even Nightwish (for the vocals), you will enjoy this album.

I listened to the sample of "Lost" at their webiste. It was quite good but if it's the best song then I can understand the quote...

Send Me A Light definitely has a Nightwish quality to it, but again this band is much closer to a power metal band than to a band like Nightwish. Comparisons are cop outs for reviewers anyway. It's a easy way to talk about an album they really didn't pay any attention to.

While I completely disagree with this website's rating and review, I do know of some fans who haven't liked this. Most people I'm in close contact with really like it (as do I) though.

I don't think musically VOA is similar to Nightwish at the moment, but I do think that both VOA CDs sound a lot like the Nightwish debut. I also think Nicole sounds very close to Tarja, so a comparison to Nightwish will almost always be mentioned in discussions about the band.

(I hope the plug is alright) Here is my full input on the band: 8)

http://www.angelfire.com/music5/metalcd ... EVIEW.html

Hope this helps...



I 100% disagree with this. Band comparisons is the most useful tool for those looking into certain bands. There are so many bands in existence, that there ends up being bands that are "similar". I would easily recommend Twilightning and Dreamtale to fans of the popular Sonata Arctica for example. I ALWAYS try and give some kind of band/musical/vocal comparisons in my reviews.



I completely agree.

Let me end by saying I was one of the first reviewers to get this CD and reviewed it a few months ago. I'm still really liking it and stand by my 3.5/5 rating (which is between "above average" and "excellent"). 8)

Man, I am really surprised that there's some pretty hardcore Visions of Atlantis fans. The reason why I say this is generic and boring as all hell is because there is absolutely nothing memorable whatsoever about the songs. They scream of formulaic writing, I can see in my head the guys sitting down around the control room talking and saying, "Yea lets turn these horns and synth strings WAAAY up. We cant afford the real thing like Nightwish do but lets give it a go anyways." There isnt one original idea at all on the whole cd, it TRIES TO BE safe and in the middle of the pack. There's no vision, no scope, no heart.

Take a look at Labyrinth's cd this week. It's very experimental yet it works. That is an album that has vision, it isnt a boring retread of generic Power Metal, it wants to be something more than that.

I still disagree, and feel it's a very memorable CD (like I said, I've had it for about 3 months). It's good that me (and the others that started the discussion) are giving a second opinion on the CD, But it kind-of sucks that you have to pop in and back up your review. 8)

There you go again, trying to make people believe that Visions Of Atlantis are a Nightwish spinoff. There are alot of other bands which used orchestral instruments in their music, why dont you mention them?
They may not sound that original, but tell me in this huge metal genre, who does have an original sound these days?
I dont believe they try to be safe at all. Their music bellows with emotion and excitement....no heart? You gotta be kidding. Maybe you need to listen to the album again.
This band has big things ahead of them....

Bands that show true musical genius and talent:

Dark Tranquillity
Labyrinth
Virgin Steele
Angra
Platitude
Ensiferum
Wintersun
Lanfear
Tad Morose
Wuthering Heights
NIGHTWISH
Symphony X
Evergrey

Hell I'll stop there. Bands on that list will continue to grow and release music that will more often than not be fresh, invigorating and something that we havent heard a million times before. VoA are simply a band that is trying to cash in on the symphonic Power Metal sound releases such as this prove this point.

I said in the power metal genre. Lets go through them

Dark Tranquillity
Labyrinth
Virgin Steele
Angra
Platitude
Ensiferum
Wintersun
Lanfear
Tad Morose
Wuthering Heights
NIGHTWISH
Symphony X
Evergrey

Dark Tranquillity are death metal, as is Ensiferum and Wintersun. Symphony X are progressive while Evergrey and Labyrinth have a mix of both. The rest, yeah they are power metal, Wuthering Heights have folk elements, but they are good.
Cant see any originality with Lanfear, Labyrinth or Evergrey. With progressive elements, of course their music will have technical touches and different instruments, but nothing i havent heard before. The others (apart from the non-power metal bands), yeah i'll give you that.

You wrote: Bands that show true musical genius and talent

So is that why you gave Platitude's "Nine" album 79/100....

Symphonic power metal bands usually all have the same structure, but its up to the bands themselves to create their own element and i see Visions Of Atlantis doing just that. Remember, its just their 2nd album. Its the all important 3rd which will make or break...and they will prove you wrong.

Wintersun isn't death metal... give the album a try and if you don't think Death & The Healing is a godly PM song... then you're deaf !

Jesus, I dont really care anymore dude. I could talk to five dozen different people to get what category what band falls in. Ensiferum isnt even remotely death in the least, same with Dark Tranquillity. They havent been deathy since about 1997.

As for giving Platitude a 79 / 100 I still stand by it. Thats an excellent album that is very good. In terms of blending melodic rock and Power Metal hell yes thats some damn talent there. I'm glad you like Visions of Atlantis man, I really am. I'm just glad myself that I outgrew fourth rate Power Metal like this years ago.

With Wintersun, there is a mix of alot of genres, but I have seen them listed as more death metal, vocal wise, with power metal influences...its all over the place.
Ben, we'll just agree to disagree. I enjoyed Cast Away, you didnt. Thats why we're all different.
But 4th rate, they aint....

I am now curious. I have read nothing but bad reviews on this disc, but I may order it from CM because my time to order a bunch and get free shipping has come up. I liked what I saw, but reviews have discouraged me. If it has catchy or pop "radio -friendly' like qualites that does not discourage me . I may find I like it more if the songs are catchy.

In my opinion, i found the tracks to be very catchy. These are the tracks which I found to be the best

Send Me A Light, Cast Away, Lost, Pharaoh's Repentance, Winternight (awesome ballad) & Last Shut Of Your Eyes

The other tracks are very good too, but those mentioned above were the best imo.
The only reason to feel this has a "pop" sound (i really hate using that word, cause its not), is the sound of the male's vocals (mario). He just sounds so mainstream...but his vocals do enhance the tracks, but i feel that he sings a little bit too much. I much rather listen to Nicole more as she has a wonderful (Tarja-like) voice.

I too have been going over reviews from other metal websites and they too give this album an average score...i dont know what it is, whether they are pissed that they think VOA are trying to copy Nightwish or something....they only make that comparison because of Nicole having a voice similar to Tarja...but thats where the similarities end.

I agree, and my review should reflect this (hopefully). Remember a 3.5/5 in my rating system is considered very high. I definitely recommend this CD.

Hahha I find it funny that most other reviews hate Mario whereas I'm actually fond of his voice. The reason I myself consider it pop is because again, the music is just too simplistic redundant and strives to be nothing more than safe for mass consumption.

Well, maybe I worded that incorrectly because I don't think all comparisons are cop outs because I, too, use comparisons in reviews that I do. What I meant is that I've read so many reviews that say Band A sounds like Band B and they proceed to talk about Band B for the whole review when they should be talking about Band A. And oftentimes the similarities are so remote you know the reviewer really didn't pay attention to the CD. Like he popped it in and said, "Oh, a soprano, huh? Nightwish wannabes!" when in reality they sound nothing like Nightwish (that comment is not directed at this review).

Do you know what I mean, though? Haven't you ever read a review and it's so blatantly off-centered that you know it can't just be a subjective and honest review, you know the reviewer probably listened to the first 40 seconds of each song and then tried to convince people he knew what he was talking about?