This
is the second release of the Danish
four piece act, after the EP "Angels
of Revenge". Akoma perform female-fronted
symphonic metal in its wide and traditional
sense. This means that you will not
find the nu-metalisms of Within Temptation
or the modern-gothic experimentations
of Lacuna Coil, but here you can trace
elements of bands like After Forever
or The 3rd and the Mortal. I guess
that you'll agree that the genre
is now overloaded, regardless if all
the bands seriously attempt to find
their own mark. So the fight for prevalence
or even survival is hard. Akoma need
to strengthen before entering this
battle, because, no matter how beautiful
ideas they have, they lack of personality.
The three tracks of this demo have
different "colours" and
I sense a kind of disorientation.
For instance while "Running Away"
is a very somber track of darkness
and grief, "Forgotten Hero"
has a softer and more ethereal sound
that can be "accused" as
the commercial face of the band.
And this disorientation
is kind of sad, because the rest of
the constituting parts of this demo
are at high level and show a focused
and professional approach. For example
Tanya Bell has a very nice voice,
totally controlled and expressive.
The guitars have a compact and powerful
sound and the rhythm section performs
solidly. All these clearly show us
that the band has worked hard to deliver
a well-crafted release. I wish that
this lack of cohesion is caused by
the limited duration of this demo.
Perhaps under different circumstances,
the songs will breathe more and will
be connected better.
This three track
demo comes on a very beautiful slim-jewel
case, with artwork of Paul Allender
from Cradle of Filth. I clearly believe
that it's a good second option
for the fans of the genre, especially
those who search for underground acts.
As I said beforehand, Akoma have to
crystallize their sound and to find
a direction of their own. They are
skilled, they have good ideas, but
they need this essential small thing
that connects them all together. It's
like bricks and mud. You can build
a house only by bricks, can you?
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