This is the first I have heard of Vision Divine in a few years. I remember hearing
Send Me and Angel and their self-titled disc and not caring much then. Could have been my mood then or whatever....nothing
much to remember, but I think one of them had a bonus track...a cover of Europe's The Final Countdown that I
thought was pretty cool. So, in a never ending search to spend more money than I have, I downloaded God is Dead
form this album, and the song quickly grew on me.
The Perfect Machine is a sci-fi concept album about a scientist who taps into
the human genetic code and madness ensues. Well not really, but the story is cool, as is the concept. Usually,
a concept is over wrought, over written or imbued in the album in cringe-worthy narrations. This is none of those, instead,
relying on written narration preceding each song in the booklet and only a short, quick narration in the album. Perfect.
The music is Italian style power metal laced with piano interludes, time changes and
just cool songs. From what I understand, this is more 'proggy' than their previous work Stream of Consciousness,
so I promptly ordered it :)
The vocals is what I was going to be afraid of, Michele Luppi has a slight Italian
accent, but it is quickly overlooked and he is a great singer and belts out some great vocal lines. I was afraid that
the songs would become tiresome (this style tends to do that to me), but the vocals keep me attentive and they have seem to
have been able to keep this style interesting (at least to me) with creative songwriting.
I can't wait to get their last album in my mailbox!
Favorites: God is Dead, Rising Sun, The Perfect Machine, Now That You've Gone,
Land of Fear
86 / 100
