Band: VANISH
Country: Germany
Title: Altered Insanity
Label: Fastball Music
Year: 2020
Style: Power Metal

Review:
Three years after the released of their third studio album, The Insanity Abstract, Vanish are back with what they name as "a special companion EP to our full-length album", a 5 tracks material clocking 25 minutes total playing time. Maybe their fans were expecting something more, like a new album, but also maybe this is prefacing exactly that, a new album, and with style I would say. The tracks have some very successful guest appearances of Tim "Ripper" Owens and Ralf Scheepers among others and they all sound excellent! The first track features a solo Rock'n'Roll female vocalist, Alicja Mroczka that has a strong, powerful yet melodic tone in perfect relation with Vanish' vocalist, Bastian Rose; this is probably the heaviest track on the EP. The next one features Ripper and has a Helloween-like catchiness and shiny atmosphere to it, and a symphonic orchestration as well. The third track featured Ben Galster on vocals (who, surprise-surprise, is the the band's new guitarist also) who gives a Metalcore spin to it, but the core remains Power Metal, obviously. Next is a great cover of Heaven and Hell by Black Sabbath with no guests this time. Ending the EP is the longest track on it (7+ minutes), a collaboration with Primal Fear's vocalist, an old-school I'd say type of Melodic Power Metal song that perfectly hits its aim. All in all I'd say Vanish have treated their followers well with this EP: good music served with class, fans of Melodic Heavy, Power and even Progressive Metal will get some serious bones to chew on here.
Reviewed by Adrian
Rating: 9/10

Contact:
vanish-metal.de
fastball-music.com