10contra1 12x02: Vanishing Point, Dead Elysium (2020)

More than six years since the release of “Distant Is The Sun”, VANISHING POINT are once again ready to take on the world with their world-class melodic metal assault on the senses. Their sixth full-length album “Dead Elysium” is a revisit to the epic and bombastic sounds of soaring vocals, heavy guitars and mesmerizing orchestral elements. Set for release on August 28th 2020 “Dead Elysium” is a return to form for Australia’s most iconic melodic metal band.

In the early 1990s when ex-Eye-members Tommy Vucur, Jack Lukic and Joe Del Mastro found current vocalist and front man Silvio Massaro VANISHING POINT has been formed. The band’s first full-length album, “In Thought” (1997) received widespread praise and cemented the six-piece as rising stars in the growing Australian heavy metal scene. Just a year after “In Thought” was re-released by Australian record label Metal Warriors, featuring new (and current) guitarist Chris Porcianko.
The band with that progressive, but still accessible compositions and aspiring musical creations did manage to put quite a few highlights to their vita over the years. They escorted a lot of big names on tour and travelled the globe with them - amongst those names were the Swedish guitar maestro Yngwie Malmsteen, finnish Symphonic masters Nightwish, Sonata Arctica, power-Metal pioneers Helloween, Joe Satriani, Edguy, Dragonforce and even the legendary Iron Maiden. Also they gave their European festival debut at the illustrious Wacken Open Air as first unsigned band ever.
2014 VANISHING POINT went on to release what is widely regarded as their most recognisable album “Distant Is the Sun”. The album was received with universal praise by critics and fans and the band did headline tours in Australia, New Zealand & Japan. Then nothing happened for quite a long time.

Guitarist Chris Porcianko explains to us lately: “We faced many obstacles over the years between "Dead Elysium" and "Distant Is The Sun", we’d like to think that this album is also a kind of reflection on the journey we had as a band and as individuals over the last few years." VANISHING POINT have undergone a resurgence and have embarked on a campaign to put themselves back in the eyes of the heavy metal world. 2019 saw the band sign to Hard Drive Agency for management and worldwide bookings. Shortly thereafter, VANISHING POINT return as a five-piece, with the introduction of bassist Gaston Chin and drummer Damien Hall.

"Musically I honestly just went with the flow and naturally the songs just came out how they did, there was no massive thought process as to how the songs should sound", states Porcianko. He carries on: "When writing the "Dead Elysium" album there was a general theme running through it musically and lyrically that we really wanted to touch upon regarding the state of world affairs in general and the situation we are in. The general theme lyrically when writing this album overall was more or less in regards to how we can see positive change? How can we make things better in terms of looking after each other? It definitely was not a case of “let's make the heaviest sounding album we can, because it’s gotta be heavier” and all that bullshit - it was a case of let the music speak for itself and in a sense we hope that our music helps people to connect or reconnect."

The epic title song “Dead Elysium” will be heralding the new album on June 19th, followed by a second single to answer to the name of “Salvus”, saturated in dark atmosphere and melody. Both will be accompanied by lyric videos. A new official energetic and symphonic videoclip/single named “Count Your Days” will see daylight shortly before album release.

Fans all around the globe will count the days until arrival of this new masterpiece, some of them will be dying to finally listen to it. But we’re able promise you one thing… “Dead Elysium” is absolutely worth the long wait!