Review by Denis on July 17, 2003.

If you expect At Vance's latest album "The Evil In You" to make your head spin 360 degrees, or have yourself being suddenly possessed and speaking in some weird incoherent language while performing some provocative gestures with a crucifix in a pure black mass ceremony, don't. You'd be sadly disappointed.

I just love the cover art so much and felt the need to force myself to get into "The Evil In You." I finally found it to be not so bad, to be honest. The artwork makes you feel like "The Evil In You" is some kind of demoniac space metal prog project. Alas! I just wish it were some great mixture of black and prog metal.

At Vance can be considered as a moderate power metal band. Not all of the material is played ultra fast, thank god! The vocals are also not always at the same falsetto bitch-pitch. Thank you again! Unfortunately, on a number of songs you do have to put up with the cheesy power metal crap. These songs have the annoying elements known to the genre and they are a bit too clean sounding for my metal tastes.

As for the good things about "The Evil In You." At Vance can write some good traditional heavy metal with clean vocals and excellent musicianship, including flamboyant guitar exhibition, especially in the solos (which might I add are a blessing on every single song on this album). One short instrumental, 'Caprice No.16,' is a classical type of composition done not on acoustic/classical guitar, but on electric guitar, which is original and very well executed. Light keyboard playing is found throughout the album and occasionally it makes its way to the forefront. The compositions are not too intricate but demonstrate good writing ability and display a certain prog edge. My favorite songs beside the title track are 'Broken Vow,' 'One Million Mile' and 'Shining Stars.'

Bottom Line: Evil? No way. I just wish the power metal switch was turned off.

Categorical Rating Breakdown

Musicianship: 8
Originality: 6
Atmosphere: 6
Production: 8
Overall: 6

Rating: 6.8 out of 10