Swiss prog-metal band Appearance of Nothing released their second disc, All Gods Are Gone, at the beginning of the this year and the band does an excellent job of combining the best elements of 70's/80's prog-rock with some hard-edged metal riffs.

Appearance of Nothing was founded in 2004 by Pat Gerber (Vocals/Guitar), Yves Luthi (Drums), Omar Cuna (Vocals/Bass) and Marc Petralito (Keys). The band released a self-produced demo Behind Closed Doors in 2005 after which the band added a second lead guitarist Peter Berger. The band's first full-length was Wasted Time (2008) which was recorded with Markus Teske (Vanden Plas, Symphony X).

On this new disc, the band is once again working with Markus Teske and the disc's seven tracks run the gamut from prog-rock to symphonic power metal and there are even some elements of thrash in the mix. The disc clocks in just shy of fifty minutes which gives the band ample time within each song to build out some memorable melodies which are rich with vocal harmonies. While Appearance of Nothing (AON) employ both clean and death metal vocals (courtesy of Dan Swanö (Edge of Sanity, Nightingale)), this is nothing like a metal-core album. The band's soaring symphonic melodies combined with Pat and Omar's clean vocal harmonies are closer to "metalized" version of bands like Queen and Asia.

The band changes tempos and structures both within and between songs and they do an excellent job of balancing the heavy with the sublime. The twin lead-guitars of Pat Gerber and Peter Berger soar with clean, melodic leads and crash with thrashing riffs while Yves Luthi pounds on the double-bass. Marc Petralito's melodic keyboards are an important part of the band's sound and are highlighted on a number of tracks, which include the instrumental outro "The Rise and Fall of Nothing".

One of the more striking songs is "Sweet Enemy", which features Devon Graves (ex-Psychotic Waltz/Deadsoul Tribe) on lead vocals and the three-part vocal harmonies end up sounding somewhat like Queen. In a recent interview with Rock Area, Pat Gerber said "As we finished “sweet enemy” we decided to ask Devon Graves to sing some parts of this song. We all felt, that his dramatic and melancholic voice would fit perfect. Now that we hear the result we know that it was the perfect choice."



Links:
Appearance of Nothing