VUUR – In This Moment We Are Free – Cities (album review) ★★★★☆

Anneke van Giersbergen is back! After The Gathering, Agua de Annique, The Gentle Storm, several guest appearances with Ayreon and many more, she is now back with VUUR. A progressive metal band completed by some of the best Dutch musicians Ed Warby (drums), Jord Otto (guitars), Ferry Duijsens (guitars) and Johan van Stratum (bass). On October 20th, 2017 they will release their debut album called “In This Moment We Are Free – Cities” produced by Joost van den Broek (After Forever, Star One).

With this list of excellent band members, Anneke goes for quality, creativity and safety. That can be heard in mainly all the songs on this album. They are diverse and go from heavy progressive metal songs like “Days Go By – London” and “Your Glorious Light Will Shine – Helsinki” to the slow and intimate ballads “Freedom – Rio” and “Reunite! – Paris”. It also proves what a great voice Anneke still has after all these years. From amazingly high symphonic notes to a heavy power sound.

VUUR – Days Go By – London

The sound quality of the album is bright as hell and all the instruments are mixed very well together into a perfect blend. The songs are massive, packed with lots of variety and it never gets boring at all. Well, maybe some songs could use some pepper, because of the slow tempo. It never speeds up really or reaches a real kind of climax, but overall the train keeps rolling. The execution of the songs is just one oiled machine, with room for solos, a nice touch of symphonic metal and all the ingredients you expect from a high quality progressive metal band.

Best thing of basically the whole album is that the songs are very catchy and there’s room to sing a long. The album is taking you on a musical journey with also the use of some exotic instruments. The highlight for me are “Sail Away – Santiago” and “Days Go By – London”. I hope this album is the start of many more VUUR!

Score: 8.4/10 ★★★★☆

Tracklist:
01. My Champion – Berlin
02. Time – Rotterdam
03. The Martyr and the Saint – Beirut
04. The Fire – San Francisco
05. Freedom – Rio
06. Days Go by – London
07. Sail Away – Santiago
08. Valley of Diamonds – Mexico City
09. Your Glorious Light Will Shine – Helsinki
10. Save Me – Istanbul
11. Reunite! – Paris

More about VUUR:
www.pitkings.nl/tag/vuur
www.vuur.band/
www.facebook.com/vuurband/