Label: Napalm Records
Review by Tony Cannella
With their new album “Dawn of the Brave” Germany’s a cappella metal trailblazers Van Canto returns with an album featuring its usual blend of killer originals and interesting covers. It all adds up to a dynamic and unique metal listening experience.
The intro “Dawn of the Brave” starts things off and lead us into the fist pumping anthem “Fight For Your Life”. “To The Mountains” is a driving song with Inga Scharf taking over the lead on vocals and it is followed by the single/video track “Badaboom”. Check out the video for this song and you’ll see that Van Canto has a sense of humor. This song also has an addictive, upbeat melody. One of the interesting things for me when it comes to Van Canto releases is seeing which songs they decide to cover and the first of four cover songs featured is their very cool rendition of the Europe song “The Final Countdown”. “Steelbreaker” is next and has a 80s hard rock vibe to it. Other highlights include: “The Other Ones”, “Unholy”, “My Utopia” and a trio of covers “Holding Out for a Hero” (Bonnie Tyler), “Into the West” (Annie Lennox) and “Paranoid” (Black Sabbath) wraps things up quite nicely.
After almost ten years and five albums in, you would think that Van Canto would have a hard time keeping things fresh and interesting, but with “Dawn of the Brave” the band has proven that the possibilities are endless. While they may have started out as a novelty, Van Canto has developed into more than just a curiosity for metal fans. They have become a great band and “Dawn of the Brave” is a killer album.
Rating – 88/100
Tracklist
- Dawn of the Brave
- Fight For Your Life
- To The Mountains
- Badaboom
- The Final Countdown
- Steelbreaker
- The Awakening
- The Other Ones
- Holding Out For A Hero
- Unholy
- My Utopia
- Into The West
- Paranoid
Line Up
- Dennis “Sly” Schunke – Lead vocals
- Inga Scharf – Lead vocals
- Ross Thompson – Higher rakkatakka vocals
- Stefan Schmidt – Lower rakkatakka vocals, solo rakkatakka vocals
- Ingo “Ike” Sterzinger – Bass vocals
- Bastian Emig – Drums