Vaden Plas/Darkwater

Had cd's from these bands in the past, both sounded rather generic to me, nothing really stood out, so I sold them off. Heard all the rave about their recent releases and checked out the samples, sounded pretty good so I gave them another shot. I must say, really impressed by both of these new albums, so did I misjudge these bands, or are these new releases that much better than their previous efforts?

The one Vanden Plas album that really impressed me was "Far Off Grace."   To me, that is where they were hitting on all cylinders.  Later albums kind of lost me with all the over-complicated symphonic stuff.  I do like the new album but also find that many of the songs sound similar and have similar structures.   I would have liked a  bit more variety in tones, textures, etc.

I do not have a lot of experience with Darkwater but "Human" sounded very good.  I prefer them to Dream Theater or most of the other overly busy / overly technical bands, maybe with the exception of Redemption.  I also like Teramaze but their 2 prior albums were much better than the latest one.

To my ears, both Vanden Plas and Darkwater are a bit bland. Sure, both sound decent, but they just lack something.

That's how I am, both are ok for a song or two but not a whole album.

I felt the same way til these new releases, they are both quite good.

I've listened to the new Darkwater and it seemed more of the same but maybe I'll give it another listen.

I agree they were slightly bland early on, but their mid periods are very good too. My favorite albums by them are Christ 0 and Where Stories End. I did really like Darkwater’s Human also, one of my favorites this year.

I had "Christ O", wasn't too keen on that, but "The God Thing" sounds pretty good from the samples I heard.