Review Appearance of Nothing - All Gods Are Gone 2011

What appears in front of me when I listen to this album are blue magicians, purple seas coloured by black mambas bleeding from their toenails and a giant eating a hamburger sausage. There is this cross in the middle, which comes from the Swiss flag that these guys hoist every flag day in the Swiss calendar along with fellow countrymen Krokus, Gotthard and Sideburn. This neo classical, semi progressive power metal band, for you who knows how to interpretate that, are the new generation and with guest voices from Dan Swanö and Devon Graves they've just made their second album.

This album is a well varied piece with crystal clear production and seven songs that takes about 48 minutes to listen at when you play all songs in a row. If you want to shorten the blow, there's not really much you can do about it because there aren't really any songs you can pluck from the stalk. If you like one I bet you'll like them all because even though they sound pretty different, they have the same kind of spirit over them and are almost inseparable. Except that they sound completely different in tempo, melodies and how the instruments are used as well as the fact that some songs have growling and others are sung completely by Devon Graves. Otherwise the vocal roll is split between guitarist Pat Gerber and bass player Omar Cuna.

Keyboards and piano are used in abundance as well as classical smoking arrangements and I give them my thumbs up for the varied vocal appearance appeared by the four vocalists singing on the album. There's somewhat of a Styx feel to it, in the good old days before I was born. And overall I don't see any issues making parallels to Styx. Since none of our readers know who Styx are (except you who took the time to read up on Daniel's 30th anniversary review of 'Paradise Theater' last month) I can tell you that Styx are one of the most successful rock bands in the world with 18 top 50 singles on the Billboard hot 100 (and a further 5 below that) as well as three triple platina selling albums and a further six albums selling gold, platinum or double platinum at the album charts. But it's not how much Styx have sold I think about when I connect Appearance of Nothing with them (believe it or not), it's how they let their many half crazy ideas just be and do whatever they feel like. If they want some keyboards - just put them in there. Tempo shifts? Go ahead! Let's intermix vocals, play some solos where no one expected them and do all songs as tiny tiny mini planets where everything from own magnetic poles to separate continents with countries that have different cultures and religions exist. You just cannot say what song you're listening to or where on the album you are. You can't even say where in the song you are most of the time because every song is like a Camelot and change character all the time, just like the album in whole. If you listen to the album enough times you might be able to start navigating yourself, but since every song have so many characteristics in them selves without distinguishing them from the album as a whole - it's almost impossible to do this no matter how many times you've heard it. Styx have a similar feel to them, they might not make you get lost on the album but neither them keep inside the box. If you want to do something, why not do it? Well... I can come up with many reasons to why not but when it comes to music they are quite few. It would perhaps be to play wedding music at a funeral, or vice versa. Or to play Endstille at the annual country music festival in Nashville, Tennessee. Nut who knows what Endstille might come up with in the future - they might just start to play country music?

Regardless of Endstilles future, and whatever Appearance of Nothing does with the same, I wouldn't call this band at this album - despite their difficulty to keep inside the box - progressive metal. Sure, there are progressive elements in it but mainly it's just a power metal band that uses neo classical arrangements on 'All Gods Are Gone'. And it sounds really good when they do so.

This album doesn't stick on you as fast as super glue and it might not be as brilliant as any idea coming from Gyro in the Duck Tales, but it is a nice album and it have quite a few laughs with your ruler straight line thinking of music. There's glimmering piano and I like the keyboard arrangements and the already mentioned four leaf clover of vocalists starring. The negatives comes mainly from the lengthy songs. And then there are some details here and there that would need some tuning. However, I bet you any money that you don't even think about it unless you really try to even though it might lower the total impression after they've been running for almost 50 minutes (even though you haven't thought about it). But that's triviality, as a whole 'All Gods Are Gone' is a good album and it's approved with some margin. I recommend it to all fans of bands like Symphony X and Yngwie Malmsteen. It's just as diverse as a Swiss army knife and passes you like a downhill skier in the Alps. The fact is that it runs like a cuckoo clock and is as strong as a Swiss cheese. A big plus for the new chocolate masters of Switzerland.

(Phew... those Swiss jokes were really terrible)

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Appearance of Nothing All Gods Are Gone

Appearance of Nothing
All Gods Are Gone