Avian From the Depths of Time

You don't see a whole lot of US Metal albums these days, but Avian has managed to capture the magic, that made bands like Lethal, Psÿco Drama and Crimson Glory so special more than a decade ago...

It all began when main man behind Avain - the band name is taken from a book called: "The Gardens of Rama" - Yan Leviathan got inspired by a weekend at ProgPower III. He started writing songs, and got in contact with Lance King (ex-Balance of Power, now Pyramaze), who later on introduced him to keyboardist Jonah Weingarten (Pyramaze). But they still needed a bass player, and again someone knew somebody and they got in touch with Dave Ellefson (ex-Megadeth, now F5), who after listening to some of the songs agreed to play bass on the album as well as co-produce it. And old friend of Lance's Roger Moore was brought in to take care of the guitar leads... and the band was ready to go...

The outcome is this solid piece of metal, with strong roots in old school heavy metal - Iron Maiden - nicely combined with the new generation of true metal. Throw in a progressive edge - mostly from the keyboard leads and fills... off course Lance King's participation makes one think of Balance of Power as well, another link that can be made here.
This is a solid piece of metal, with some very strong leads, Lance is singing as brilliantly as always, the song writing is good and the production is good. BUT, and it's a small but, all of the songs seem to be at the same level, no one really stand out.

Avain offers a fresh breath of metal with "From the Depths of Time". So if you like power metal with a slight progressive and true metal edge, and then take a listen to this cool album, which has another excellent cover art work by Mattias Norén - this guy rules!

Recommended tracks: "Black Masquerade", "Final Frontier" & "The Depths of Time"