I know there are some people who still can't stand the voice of Altzi, and I don't even understand why. For yeah, I'm a stubborn fan and I adore it. In the year of 2008 he released one really strong album (speaking of vocal performance) with Frequency and then went for the lighter, yet melodic and really pleasant record with Sandalinas, which impressed me a lot. I didn't expect this, for their debut included the vocal god Apollo from Firewind, but still Rick gave "Fly To The Sun" a really nice energetic-like touch of his own self. The self-titled track "Fly To The Sun" with all those frantic lyrics was a pleasant surprise, which I can also direct to all of the other songs as well. So finally I ended up with two really nice albums with him, and it looks like this year will follow the example with the forthcoming Thunderstone effort.

Some week ago I went through my favorite At Vance period, which includes Oliver Hartmann. I heard "Ride The Sky" last night and it became clear that any kind of comparison between both "new" and "old" sound of the band is out of the question - it's a totally different At Vance we got nowadays. The guys simply play whatever they feel like at most these days, while Rick is just playing his role very well - he's not the creative engine in this case, so I don't think that he's the one to blame for the general musical direction change. All the more, each of these oldschool hints in almost every solo in their new effort simply speak of the same.

So, we already know that the guys can interpret Vivaldi's Seasons themes, but they're running out of them, it seems. 1488.gif Not that it'll be a problem, for they can always go back to where they started - Chopin, Bach, Paganini, they have a lot of basic material for further ideas. Still the current version of "Summer" is pretty nice, though nothing that we haven't heard so far. All the neoclassical elements in their music are the second feature that survived throughout their own history, while the first is the obligatory cover interpretation traditions. "Ride The Sky" is simply a typical "new" At Vance album, more hard rock spirited, as they said they will release. Rick sounds more confident here, maybe the band just went through a longer adaptation process, but in the end we got an album in the vein of "VII", but better and slightly upgraded somehow. I liked all the songs except the vague melody of "Salvation Day" and the unnecessary ballad "You And I" - still I might've liked them were they more compositionally complex. Good thing is, the rest presents yet another high level standard - "Falling" has a totally catchy chorus, and the riffs of "Power" and the ending "Farewell" are really nicely unfolded. At first I thought that "Last In Line" is the abovementioned chosen cover version for this album, for lately they've been going after some Deep Purple/Rainbow songs, so I expected to hear their vision of Ronnie James Dio's "The Last In Line". Well, I was wrong, but they didn't go astray from their previous intentions - "Wishing Well" stands for the cover here, originally by Free (including some late Gary Moor version), whose song I deeply love - nice job, I like what they did with the melody and all. The title track "Ride The Sky" brings back the characteristic "new" At Vance sound, which in the end can be referred to the whole album in general, come to think of it.

It's not like I don't want to hear something more in the vein of my favorite period of their discography (more concrete the spirit of "Ages Of Glory" or the title track from the "Dragonchaser" album itself). Of course I do. I want back all those simple, naive lyrics, the speedy guitar work, the amazingly rich voice of Oliver's vocal chords, everything. I wouldn't mind to hear yet another album of their Mats Leven era, too, for the records with him were perfect as well. The thing that finally saves At Vance for me in the end is that whenever they go for different musical direction, they do it on purpose, with a lot of ideas and certainly not just "because of that" like some other bands. These guys do it in a real professional way and they continue to make me rejoice after everything they release, which in the end justifies their decisions.