Van Canto - Dawn of the Brave

Van Canto Dawn of the Brave cover
Van Canto
Dawn of the Brave
Napalm Records
2014
3.5
When Van canto appeared in the metal scene in the mid 00s I thought they were a joke. But the years went on and the joke would just not go away and now this joke has some 5 albums and a couple of performances at Wacken festival.
 
This a-capella power metal band, comprising of 5 singers, with 2 of them sharing lead vocal duties while the other 3 imitating the string instrument and a drummer, actually doing a lot of covers and as of late a bunch of uneventful originals has been around for almost 10 years now, slightly less I guess, but, it’s ridiculous how their gimmick caught on. Their lead singers vocal abilities are not bad, but I doubt, they’d be noticed, in some average band. The rest of them, can probable keep a tune and in tune, but, mostly go “booom, boom boooooom, parapppppaaapaaamm” all the time which is not really singing…. is it? It sort of impressive at first, it could even be impressive as a YouTube video, but basing 5 commercial albums on this... (mostly doing covers – which shows that you can’t be arsed to compose your own music, instead using the shortcut of calling some famous people and covering their tunes too, which is quite redundant really!) NO! Hell NO! An eternity of Justin Bieber might be better than this! (I know full well that this is a pretty horrible eternity described here, but try 1 hour of Van Canto and an eternity of JB, might just look like a walk in the park! Hahahaha!)..
 
Apparently they didn’t get any “guests” on this “fifth one” but arranged a chorus of “200” fans to sing along with the band on certain tracks… I’m guessing the worst thing on the album is the “bassist” he sounds like SHIT and should be replaced hahahha or change the tuning :p hahahaha, also the drummer is pretty dull, too. Well there are some 4 covers, Europe’s “Final Countdown”, Bonnie Tyler’s “Holding out for a Hero”, “Into the West” a song that Annie Lennox had done for the LOTR OST, and Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid”. The only one I could give a shit about was “Into the West” because thankfully it barely has any orchestration… at all! (Thank God!) Most of the band own tracks are crappy 4th rate Blind Guardian reject stuff, done with boomboxin…? So what am I to say… No more are we doomed release your “Badaboom”? Give these guys an Ivor Novello NOW! Mysteriously enough “The Other Ones” and “Unholy” didn’t suck that much and if they were real – orchestrated songs… oh well, a different story for another band I guess... a limited edition and even a very expensive “earbook” ie a 50 page hardcover – LP sized book of this album exist, with bonuses culled from previous albums… again mostly covers, (in the case of the earbook). While many bands find it hard to put out an album or to tour, some people, just seem to have found a shortcut. Well, on the horizon I foresee a storm, oh, shit, it’s a SHITSTORM!
 
Two songs and a gimmick that’s 5 albums past it’s sell by date, can’t save an album from getting served a can of whoop-ass!