Akoma
Revangels

“The debut album of Denmark's leading symphonic metal act AKOMA” states the press release for this album, and it may be correct. I can’t think of any symphonic metal band from Denmark. Akoma might be the first one I hear and therefore they are also the best no matter what. This may be their debut but they have a pretty long history and have released a few EPs before this album so they have been around for a while. And their debut album has gotten a dramatic artwork and has a prominent guest appearance in Liv Kristine who sings on the title track together with singer Tanja.

Female fronted melodic metal with symphonic parts, soprano vocals, grand arrangements and those things you have come to know from this kind of music. Anyone who has heard many bands and albums in this genre can hear that these guys press the buttons normally pressed by similar bands. They offer no surprises. But they offer a good sound, decent vocals and a good selection of songs, eight songs and a bonus song that was heard on a previous EP, a total of 45 minutes is what we get from this album.

I am a bit ambivalent towards this album; it doesn’t really make an impression on me. The songs are good but they are not memorable and I tend to just glance over the album that requires quite an effort to really pay attention to it. But the songs are still good so the lower rating I was contemplating at times can’t be given, it is just too good for that and I wouldn’t be surprised if some claim that it is excellent even though we hear plenty of similar albums every year. I would say that this is a perfect album for a rating in the middle, not great and not bad, just something close to the middle of the road.

The title track is the best one; it is a good song even though I would not describe it as something earth shattering. The album works okay and I would say that Akoma are pretty good but they really need to start finding their own voice as it is very difficult to be really relevant when you are repeating what other have already done better.

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