Music Review: VANGOUGH – Kingdom of Ruin

VANGOUGH
Kingdom of Ruin
[Nightmare Records]
Verdict: 8/10
The main appeal with VANGOUGH is their unique sound. Kingdom of Ruin displays a number of genre variations, covering rock (classic and new), metal (classic and new), prog, experimental, tech, math and more. This makes for a fresh listening experience. Vocally, VANGOUGH primarily keeps to singing (though there are several areas of light screaming). Every style heard sounds impressive, so there’s no fault there. Instrumentally, as mentioned before, VANGOUGH keep things interesting almost always. While I found “Disloyal” to be the most entertaining track, there are a handful of great moments to be heard during this track list. At this point, you may be questioning why I did not score this album higher. Personally, I’m not a huge fan of prog-rock. However, I can still appreciate what is being done here. There’s a lot of exploration on Kingdom of Ruin, which is great. It keeps the listener from becoming easily bored. The band is also made up of some very skilled musicians, so everything here is top notch. At times, VANGOUGH feels like a trip in the sense that a lot of the music heard is very expressive and artistic. Kingdom of Ruin is an interesting release most definitely worth looking into. – By Nathaniel Lay
>Recommended Tracks: “Disloyal”, “The Rabbit Kingdom”, “Sounds of Wonder”
>Bottom Line: VANGOUGH are great at what they do. If prog-rock is your thing, then welcome Kingdom of Ruin into your life without question. This is a very expressive and well written album.