Music Review // Vannon "Desert of Our Dreams" (Big Round Music)

https://vannon.bandcamp.com/album/desert-of-our-dreams //

When you consider music and its various genres, there is always this way about it which could be simple or it could just as easily be complex.   Vannon, for example, creates music under the vast genre known as metal.   This is something that is easy enough to type and while there have certainly been artists out there who could simply be described as metal, that idea gets much more complex than that for Vannon.

The first song on "Desert of Our Dreams" is a minute long instrumental intro and then the last song is a twelve minute opus.   In between we have songs ranging from that growling metal with singing like the bands on Victory Records back when I was first listening to Atreyu, Scars Of Tomorrow and Dead To Fall.   But there is also some more melody within these songs and at times they can remind me of Metallica.

Through killer guitars and huge percussion, "The First and Last" is a song which reminds me more of Audioslave than anything else.    Once again, my knowledge of modern metal which might be closest to something from the big hair era starts and ends with Fozzy, but I'm slowly exploring the genre with more artists and Vannon can be amongst that group.   "Above the Stars" has more of a ballad feel to it with the acoustics, but as much as you can be surprised by one song to the next that can also just change during the song itself.

Once you discover rock music you seem to find at least one metal band you like and stick with them throughout your life.  I've always liked the metal bands who sounded heavy but didn't really fit in with anyone else because they just explored too many other sounds within that overall sound of metal.   Not many bands do it because it is not easy, but Vannon has a rather distinct way of doing it and they are damn good at it.