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After hearing the news of vocal god Michele Luppi leaving Vision Divine, I was dubious as to whether the band could ever recover. Fortunately the announcement of former singer Fabio Lione coming back in was a big relief. Still, filling the boots of Michele Luppi would be a hard enough task for any singer, and I must admit I was still skeptical. I thoroughly enjoyed Fabio's work with the band on the awesome Send Me An Angel, so at least I knew Fabio was capable for the job. Essentially what Vision Divine have done is take the sound they had with The 25TH Hour and painted over it with Fabio's vocals. In all honesty I think it actually worked out very well, better than I first thought.

Opener "Letter To My Child Never Born" is incredible, clocking in at nearly 9 minutes, with a very catchy chorus and a smoking keyboard/guitar duel which recalls sounds from the previous album, possibly a linking theme. What I think my favorite thing about 9 Degrees West Of The Moon is that the band just sounds right. This is not to say there's no room for experiment. "The Killing Speed Of Time" is one of the braver tracks I've heard from this band and it slays, with speedy riffing and some aggressive vocal delivery, it really gets the blood pumping. Tracks such as "Violet Loneliness", "The Streets Of Laudomia" and "Fly" are prime examples of the band sounding comfortable, being some of the catchier tracks on offer, with some brilliant guitar work. It's so good to be able to recommend this album because I was so skeptical about this release at first, but my expectations have been completely blown out of the water and this will certainly be the measuring stick as to which all Prog/Power will be measured throughout 2009. A great album by a truly reliable act, I can wholeheartedly recommend this album to fans of catchy, well thought out and played Progressive Power Metal.

Stand out tracks: "Letter To My Child Never Born", "The Killing Speed Of Time", and "The Streets Of Laudomia"