Vision Divine
The Perfect Machine
6.2
Bands like Vision Divine will continue to be ignored, no matter how many great reviews they get, simply because of the fact that they play a sound easily described as “power metal.” The mere fact that I brought up that term in this review will turn away at least a quarter of my potential readers. Well fuck that shit! This is heavy metal through and through, and recorded in a classy and professional enough fashion to warrant some serious interest from genre enthusiasts.
Vocalist Michele Luppi has some serious pipes, and unlike many clean singers, never sounds forced. Sure, the keyboards get a bit overused, but Luppi sings only when it makes sense within the structure of every song. Guitarists Olaf Thorsen and Federico Puleri fill the gaps with interesting enough riffs to separate the Italian group from the rest of the power metal crowd. They pull off some seriously muscular riffage throughout, and Luppi’s similarly powerful voice helps to create a very strong, defining sound. A ball-busting song with an awesome chorus like “First Day of a Never-Ending Day” (yes, the title makes little sense) establishes Vision Divine as one of the genre’s more accessible acts.
The lyrics don’t always make sense, keyboardist Alessio Lucatti is given a little too much free reign, and some of the compositions are a bit weak, but the charm is there and the passion conveyed clearly enough to give Vision Divine a solid recommendation to consistent fans of more upbeat and epic heavy metal. If you find yourself among that crowd, don’t hesitate to at least visit the group’s site and sample a few songs. If I had to make a comparison, I’d say they’re a few notches below Voyager in terms of song structure and addictive melody, but they’re certainly within that same sound grouping.
