ALBUM REVIEW: To The Power Of Eight – Van Canto

Acapella is a very interesting style of music – all vocals, little to no instruments, and it’s all sung; that means melody, harmonies, rhythms, and even chords and bass are all vocals. This is mostly known because of the Pitch Perfect film series, but not often heard in the metal genre. This is what German band VAN CANTO set out to make, taking all but a few instruments out of the classic metal line-up and replacing it with a choir. On their eighth album, To The Power Of Eight, they aim to explore more of what hasn’t been explored. How does this album differ from their previous album and help show more of their unique musical combination?

From the start, it’s very strong, especially with the title track to kick things off. The harmonies are beautiful, very folky, and help set the tone for who this band is right out of the gate. Their original material is very compelling, the vocals are strong, tight, and stunning. It shows that the group is cohesive and works so well with each vocalist. The use of drums instead of having another rhythm vocalist is a choice – whilst metal has to be heavy, that can still be brought out with the vocal sounds a mouth can make.

It all still works, but after the first couple tracks, the novelty of the sound does wear off and when peeling back the layers, musically it’s fine, but that’s all it is. It’s executed well, but without the gimmick of acapella, it is just fine. The lyrics do help elevate the music, like in Dead By The Night, Heads Up High, and Turn Back Time. There’s a lot of great poetry written to these really good melodies that makes some pretty good tracks.

However, out of the 12 tracks, there are four covers included on the album. That means only eight tracks of original material. It’s understandable to include one cover on an album, maybe two, but four seems very excessive, as if the band didn’t have enough material to fill the full album. It feels like an EP with four covers attached near the end and mixed through the last half. They’re not done well either, with two of them adding a guitar, which is a very odd choice for an acapella band and could have easily done as a musical line, especially with I Want It All, which is made basic. Thunderstruck’s guitar can be complicated, but can also be done with vocals instead of a guitar. There’s definitely more that can be done to make the covers their own, but it’s all played straight and nothing really makes it VAN CANTO. 

Overall, To The Power Of Eight is fine, but it would work so much better as an EP with just their original material because what they have is pretty good. There’s a lot of potential and some pretty good work they’ve done so far. VAN CANTO, as an acapella metal band, work so well that they don’t need to rely on covers. Even songs like Hardrock Padlock and Falling Down are good songs for the band, but having the covers around them does not help. There’s more they can do, it will be very interesting to see what is next, as long as they step away from the covers, they can do so much more with their sound and style. To The Power of Eight is fine, but maybe taking it to the nines will help the band soar. 

Rating: 6/10

To The Power Of Eight is out now via Napalm Records.

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