AT VANCE seem to be in a rising course after the 2003 entitled The Evil In You that was the first album with Mat Leven on the vocals. Even though their sound is basically Euro Power Metal they have managed to take a step or two outside the bounding box of this specific scene. It is common knowledge that the Euro Power Metal bands have the tendency to sound like each other. So, Ride The Sky is the band's eighth album and the second for Leven's substitution's Rick Altzi.
Being familiar to the band's previous albums I was pretty aware what to expect after the play button had been pushed. The homonymous song enters with an excellent main melody and some Jorn Lande sounding vocals to go with proving in audio what I said about the ascending course. This track is full of energy and if you listen closely, you will be happy to discover an AOR based backbone that justifies the great melodic injections. I believe that his is exactly what gave AT VANCE a head start in comparison with the rest of the classic Euro Power Metal bands. Among the trademark elements of this genre with the sing-along riffs and chorus lines the German band has put additional work to the melodies. Of course, the album does have some songs that go by the book like Last In Line and Power where Rick Altzi reminded me of Apollo Papathanasio from FIREWIND. Olaf Lenk has never hidden his love about the Classic music and he does not miss the chance to add several inspired guitar phrases and leads in Ride The Sky and to dedicate the instrumental to Vivaldi's Four Seasons and especially to the second concerto for summer. The RAINBOW influences found in the previous albums are also here, enhanced even more by the Joe Lynn Turner-like harsh as heard in the power ballad You And I and the semi-ballad Fallin'.
So, AT VANCE return with another good album bearing everything that they have presented in the previous works having as allies the crystal clear sound production and a very good singer. All in all, a better album than the previous that will satisfy the band's fans and it might manage to attract some more.