Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Place Vendome
Label: Frontiers Records
Release: 2017
Running time: 59:16
Rating: 4/5
Place Vendome is really a project that came about more than a decade ago on the suggestion of the top brass at Frontiers Records. Nobody gave it much of a chance of surviving long-term, yet ever since the self-titled debut in 2005 the records have kept arriving like clockwork, every four years. The third album, »Thunder in the Distance«, came out in 2013, and right on the eleventh anniversary of RockLine we got its successor, »Close to the Sun«.
The story from the previous records doesn’t change much. Not in style or production, anyway. It’s hard rock heavily inspired by the elements of 80s AOR. Behind the project stands a bunch of incredibly seasoned guys, but the main songwriting duties, and the job of giving the final product its tasteful shape, fall to the quiet captain in the background, Dennis Ward. He’s an American musician and producer with a German passport, and he’s in charge of producing every single Place Vendome album.
In recent years the ties between Ward and vocalist Michael Kiske, a guy every metalhead knows from his singing on the classic Helloween albums, have only grown stronger, since the two have been playing together in Unisonic. The core of the project is still Ward’s Pink Cream 69 buddy, guitarist Uwe Reitenauer, former drummer of the Dutch prog-metallers Elegy Dirk Bruinberg, and the superb keyboardist of the German prog-metallers Vanden Plas, Günter Werno.
Now, so that »Close to the Sun« wouldn’t end up a perfect carbon copy of its predecessor »Thunder in the Distance«, the people shaping the new album, with backing from the Frontiers Records agents (Alessandro Del Vecchio), invited a whole bunch of guitarists to join in. Every track therefore features a different guest guitarist contributing their own solo. Besides Reitenauer, these are some big aces: Gus G (Firewind, Ozzy Osbourne), Kai Hansen (Gamma Ray, Unisonic), Mandy Meyer (Krokus, Unisonic, ex-Gotthard, ex-Asia), Simone Mularoni (DGM), Magnus Karlsson (Primal Fear, Staebreaker) and Alfred Kofler (Pink Cream 69). These cameos guarantee variety within the songs themselves. They’re secondary, though, since they don’t affect the overall sound and shape of the tracks, which is why »Close to the Sun« is a typical Place Vendome album. Still, all this soloing color is enough to keep the album, and the project with it, very interesting for fans of the AOR revival, dressed in a noisier, punchier production (of the »German« kind), where the guitar phrases are, as the saying goes, pushed clearly to the front of the wall of sound.
Kiske remains in outstanding vocal shape. The man, who turns 48 this year, can boast remarkable vocal preservation. He’s still explosive, recognizable and convincing in carrying power from the mid range up to the highest registers. Compared with his striking singing on the Helloween albums in the 80s, his voice has changed very little, if at all. He still develops an incredibly musical touch in his vocal lines and confidently hits extremely high notes without any trouble. That said, Kiske also uses a few novelties, like the strongly emphasized lower register in the verse of Welcome to the Edge, which is then pulled upward by a superbly packaged chorus melody. Ward and the crew are so experienced and battle-hardened that they simply can’t allow themselves any arrangement slip-ups. Even in the moments that bore the most in a genre like this one (I’m talking about those ever-present ballads, like Strong, for instance), they manage to keep things interesting enough. That song gets pulled up from the bottom by an excellent guitar solo from Michael Klein.
So? The new album is exactly what fans of the project, as well as followers of melodic hard rock revivalism with sharply pronounced riffing and a solid curtain of synths behind it, could only have wished for. With all their rich experience, the project’s musicians have delivered a fresh batch of excellent ideas that guarantee high quality from the opening title track all the way to the end, where the album closes with »Distant Skies«.
Place Vendome – Light Before the Dark:
Line-up
Michael Kiske – vocals
Dennis Ward – bass, guitar, backing vocals
Uwe Reitenauer – guitar
Günter Werno – keyboards
Dirk Bruineberg– drums
GUEST MUSICIANS:
Michael Klein – lead guitar on “Yesterday Is Gone”, “Distant Skies”, “Strong”, “Breathing”
Alfred Koffler – lead guitar on “Welcome To The Edge”
Magnus Karlsson – lead guitar on “Falling Star”
Gus G. – lead guitar on “Light Beyond The Dark”
Simone Mularoni – lead guitar on “Hearafter”
Mandy Meyer – lead guitar on “Helen”
Kai Hansen lead guitar on “Riding The Ghost” and “Across The Times”
Alessandro Del Vecchio – additional vocals on “Strong”
Production
Denis Ward
Track list
01. Close To The Sun
02. Welcome To The Edge
03. Hereafter
04. Strong
05. Across The Times
06. Riding The Ghost
07. Light Before The Dark
08. Falling Star
09. Breathing
10. Yesterday Is Gone
11. Helen
12. Distant Skies
