ETERNAL ENDLESS INFINITY (E)

Eternal Endless Infinity is the debut of Austrian band Visions Of Atlantis in the music scene of melodic and gothic metal. After a short orchestral keyboard intro, the double bass drums begin to hammer, soprano Nicole Bogner starts to sing accompanied by heavy guitar riffs and orchestral keyboards. Her voice is alternated by the voice of Christian Stani. In the tracks that follow the double bass drums of drummer Thomas Caser are less dominating and not used in every track. The bass playing by Mike Koren is solid but inconspicuous. Many tasteful changes in rhythm and almost ballad-like interludes provide a pleasant kind of tension throughout the ten songs. Although the melodies basically resemble those of Nightwish, in total the sound of Visions Of Atlantis comes close to the sound of their fellow countrymen of Edenbridge. More than with Edenbridge we hear keyboardsolos, but the guitar playing by Werner Friedler is not as classically orientated as Lanvall's and in my opinion not extraordinary impressive but on the other hand much to be preferred to all the look-how-many-notes-I-can-play-within-a-second guitarists. Also the voice of Stani is very limited, not a passionate or outstanding voice, who's role is regrettably somewhat more important than Nicole Bogner's. Her lovely voice however hasn’t got the reach and strength in comparison with for example Dutch Floor Jansen (After Forver, Nightwish), at least not yet! A beautiful classical keyboard intro by Christian Kamper - who also wrote all the lyrics, mostly on Atlantis related subjects - in Eclipse clearly underlines the potential of this band. All and all this album lacks some originality, but is surely not an inferior album, especially when one takes in consideration that this is a debut album. I regret I have to suggest the band could consider hiring another male vocalist but given time, good guidance and with the desire and ability to create a more distinctive sound I’m convinced this band could have a bright future!