Formed in 2012 by keyboardist Oleg Polyanskiy and guitarist Dmitry Zhinkin, the Ukrainian band Visions Project has to be one of the most diverse albums I have ever come across. Keyboard player Oleg Polyanskiy had a vision of creating an album that features a variety of styles, from classical and jazz fusion all the way through to progressive metal and in many ways he has succeeded. Guitarist Dmitry Zhinkin definitely bought into the whole concept, and he wrote approximately half of the album, so it is very much a joint effort. They started recording the album in 2010, but due to geography the album took three years to complete as Oleg lives in Doha (Qatar), Dmitry in Moscow (Russia), bassist Shirhan Agabeyli in Kiev (Ukraine), while the drummers Vadim Samosyuk, Sergey Balalaev and singer Vlad Volovikov in Kharkov (Ukraine). They are all session musicians in their own right, and this definitely comes through in the performance as some of the pieces are just stunning, such as the incredible guitar solo which is “Prelude”.
But, although in many ways this album is a great success in that it achieved exactly what Oleg wanted with a real diversity of sounds and styles, that is also its’ greatest weakness. On their own, many of the pieces (especially the instrumentals) are just wonderful, but when put into a whole album it becomes a series of unconnected pieces that could almost be by different bands as opposed to something that I would believe is by a single entity. It is almost too clever for itself, and the result was something that I could never really get inside of, there is too little continuity for me to want to play this repeatedly. That in itself is a real shame, as there are some wonderful performances on here, but the complete result is something that for me misses the mark.
