Vanden Plas - The Ghost Experiment - Illumination

[EnchantED]

New tune from the second part of the concept story.
https://youtu.be/zRvcGvsB0j8
I think it's a great song and the ending is majestic!

[Hearing Aid Man]

Sounds like Vanden Plas. I'm in.

[Lionheart]

This sounds so pretentious, and it's quite unfortunate that they are doing concept albums about Ghosts now.

I used to worship the ground they walked on, as my absolute favorite band from the mid 90's (Colour Temple/The God Thing/Far Off Grace/Beyond Daylight) to sometime in the mid 00's (Starting with Christ0) when they started to become a strictly theatrical themed prog band. Content/lyrics matter to me, and while musically they always deliver, it's hard to not be turned off by a formula that for me is not an attraction, at least not with Vanden Plas. I'm in, but only because of who they are, even if not vested in what they are doing.

[Harvester]

Formula remains the same as last few.

However, I will say that "Fata Arcadia" is right up there with the best of their catalog. More of that please....

[LarryD]

I finally got around to playing this a few times now. At first, I thought " more of the same " and I almost abandoned it because of that. It is more of the same, only a bit better. Much better than the last disc. And I'm hoping that the next disc in the trilogy will be even better. This was a blind purchase for me no matter what - and again, I'm much more excited about it than I was with the last disc. I came around eventually, but I don't want to force feed Vanden Plas to myself as they are one of my favorite bands.....

Half of this disc is pure Vanden Plas ..... complete with the melodies and crunch that we all know. The other half is Broadway Andy and I'm guessing that is what is putting some people off. I will agree with Glenn that "Fata Arcadia" is what we probably want from them all of the time, but I have no problem with the Christ 0 vibe I get from the other songs......

To me - it's Vanden Plas doing what they do after 20 years. They can keep on doing it as long as they can for my enjoyment, as long as the material is quality, I and do believe that this disc is quality. It will not compete with discs like Chronicles Part 1 or The Seraphic Clockwork, but to me it doesn't have to. It has to be good prog metal like they have been doing for so many years. I'm just glad that they are still around to look forward to .......