Arrayan Path
Dawn of Aquarius

Cypriot band Arrayan Path makes it half-dozen albums with this new release that they call Dawn of Aquarius. Their latest of these albums was released little over a year ago and the first one was released in 2004, so it is a band with experience stretching well over a decade. This new album has thirteen honouring the mother goddess Kali and explores aspects of Hindu mythology relating to the many faces of the character called Kali. That could be interesting I suppose, but the album looks quite bad and the band’s logo looks like a child made it – fortunately I never judge books by its cover, but perhaps this time I should have done it.

Musically the idea has promise, classic eighties and nineties heavy/power metal with Middle Eastern influences, use of classical instruments and folkish touches. This is an album as varied as Kali’s many faces and traits, says the press mail and now that I read it I think “bullshit!” I don’t think it is a very varied album – certainly not varied enough to keep you interested the entire playing time. And the production feels kind of like a typical modern “epic” power metal album, it sounds quite Italian I think. But it doesn’t sound like the good Italians, more like the mediocre ones. And I don’t think the vocalist is particularly impressive.

With a playing time of one hour and four minutes it is difficult to keep listening and to keep the interest up, a long yawn. They could definitely cut away several songs and also trimmed several songs as there are both too many and too long songs on this album and less would certainly have been more in this case. Mediocrity seems to be the name of the game when it comes to Dawn of Aquarius. But all is isn’t mediocre of course, I like the penultimate track called Guardian Angel, it is a strong and catchy tune. Other than that I don’t find much that can be called memorable, it is a rather forgettable album.

If you like the Italian styled epic power metal it could be something for you, and if you like what the band has done before it might also be worth checking out. If none of these appeal to you it will probably be a good idea to overlook this album as there are much more interesting ones being released in 2017 and 2018. And that is all I have to say about the many mediocre faces of Kali and Dawn of Aquarius.

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