Parts of this album you will hate. Parts of this album you will love. Other parts you will be totally indifferent towards.
What I am trying to say?
About as much as Akphaezya is trying to say with ‘Anthology II’, i.e. many things at the same time.
The debut album of the French band is a stylistic melting pot to say it the least, and to be honest, it is not a disc I’ll flip into the disc player when I need to relax. It is demanding on the listener in its experimentation with styles, including elements of progressive rock, metal (various degrees of), jazz and reggae.
In Nehl Aëlin has a very special singer whose voice is not a far cry from former Gathering vocalist Anneke – only, with a more experimental attitude towards music. She’s got quite a range, spanning from the quiet, jazzy beauty of Stolen Tears to the hauntingly hysterical chants sported on a few of the other tracks. The extreme metal vocal parts are performed by, I guess, guitarist and band concept main man Stephan H. Akphaezya and less impressive (= ordinary).
This is the infamous genius/madness discussion again, I suppose. I really do think parts of this album are brilliant, but in the long run I begin missing structure and coherence and less of the hysterical chants. I feel a hint of the kind of stress I get from listening to Cynic, if you know what I mean…
Approved, but only sort of.
