Visions Of Atlantis
A Pirate’s Symphony – Napalm Records
Conventional wisdom holds that heavy metal was born from the blues, and while that might be
true of original propagators like Sabbath, bands such as Visions Of Atlantis have far more in
common with Richard Wagner than John Lee Hooker. That connection becomes most apparent
on their latest release, A Pirate’s Symphony, a record which rips open the treasure chest of
2022 long player Pirates, reworking those twelve tracks and bringing to the fore their inherent
classical structure and the result careens like a vessel upon stormy seas. What opening track
‘Pirates Will Return’ immediately reveals is the cinematic quality of these songs and they
wouldn’t be out of place on the soundtrack of the latest seafaring blockbuster and should
conjure strong images of Blackbeard hauling a victim round the keel. Traditional metal
instrumentation has been dispensed in favour of classical, yet there’s no depreciation in
heaviness; in fact, the musical dynamics are more enhanced here than on the parent album
meaning songs such as ‘Master the Hurricane’ hit like a cannonball to the chest. Orchestral this
album might be, yet there’s plenty here to inspire the average metalhead to don an eyepatch,
buy a parrot and fly the Jolly Roger!
Visions Of Atlantis – Facebook
Review by Peter Dennis