Thursday, June 20: Vandroya, "The Last Free Land"
Power metal, with all of its semi-permutations, was pretty much solidified with the release of Stratovariusâ Fourth Dimension in 1995, and everything that came out under the power metal banner ever since was directly connected to that band along with a small handful of predecessors. And even if it all was so very familiar, that didnât stop a never-ending plethora of younger acts from getting in the game: Vandroyaâs âThe Last Free Landâ couldâve come out at any point from 1996 onward. All the obvious touchstones were there, and it was actually perfectly OK since nobody was really expecting anything else. The Brazilian act knew exactly what they were going for and how to go about it, and the track worked well on those terms.
