Band:	Van Canto
Album:	Dawn Of The Brave
Style:	A Cappella, Power metal
Release date:	February 2014

Disc I
01. Dawn Of The Brave
02. Fight For Your Life
03. To The Mountains
04. Badaboom
05. The Final Countdown [Europe cover]
06. Steel Breaker
07. The Awakening
08. The Other Ones
09. Holding Out For A Hero [Bonnie Tyler cover]
10. Unholy
11. My Utopia
12. Into The West [Lord Of The Rings Soundtrack]
13. Paranoid [Black Sabbath cover]


Disc II [digibook edition bonus]
01. If I Die In Battle [orchestral version]
02. My Voice [orchestral version]
03. Take To The Sky [orchestral version]
04. Neuer Wind [Jovian Spin remix]
05. Lost Forever [acoustic version]
06. Last Night Of The Kings [choir version]

My first contact with Van Canto has been, to be honest, pretty painful. A classmate gave me his earphones suggesting me to listen to the "Master Of Puppets" cover, off their 2010 album Tribe Of Force. As my reaction was something like "Wow! These guys use their mouths better that your sister!", I went back home with the aching memory of a punch in the stomach and the name of Van Canto well written in my to-check-out mental list. From that very day, I've been a fervent fan of the German band.

This was to say that, as a fan, what the group showed prior to the release of Dawn Of The Brave have been decidedly worrying. Everything, from the cover art, with the weird superhero theme, to the promo single "Badaboom" seemed to be leading to an album that would be too fun-dedicated. Not that these guys have always been so grave, but they always respected rational limits, that this time were failing.

From this not-so-uncommon review structure, you'll already know by now what I'm going to say: luckily, I was wrong, since Dawn Of The Brave is a really good continuation of the Van Canto legacy.

Despite everyone bashing this band as a gimmick, this album shows once again these guys' unique talent of writing catchy, fun power metal leaving guitars at home. Like every other album of theirs, this last shows its pearls in the beginning, being every track until the wonderfully mastered cover of "The Final Countdown" an instant Van Canto hit - yes, also "Badaboom", in the three-and-a-half-minutes studio version, becomes a really immediate sing-along anthem.

As always, the second half slightly drags the album down, despite some picks of quality as in the Bonnie Tyler and Lord Of The Rings covers and in the power metal fun "The Awakening", lead by an increasingly influential Inga Scharf; while the ones who remind with pleasure the ballad "Last Night Of The Kings" will find their probable favorite in "The Other Ones". While in the last album the covers, usually a strength point for this band, were somehow not up to standards, this time they shine once again in the track-list, enriching an already good offering. From pop rearrangements to hard rock tracks dressed as epic metal, there's something to everyone's liking.

Almost three years have passed since Break The Silence, and this may be a sign of the ideas slowly running away from the band, but most likely I'm just wandering around with my imagination, since Van Canto stand strong once again with Dawn Of The Brave.