Beriedir
Aqva

What an amazing cover art the Italian band Beriedir have on their new album Aqva, and album that obviously revolves around water. I would buy it hands down for the cover if it came on vinyl, it would look great and the quality of the album itself wouldn’t matter anyway as over 50% of my vinyl records are unopened anyway. But the objective of a review by a critic is not to ascertain whether or not the reviewer will buy the album, but rather how good it is. So how about the second album of this Italian band?

They are kind of a power progressive metal band, I read death metal in the description as well, but I don’t think they go in that direction much. I would compare them to Italian compatriots like Eldritch or DGM along with the similars that I use that were provided in the press material. They also add Dark Tranquility and Katatonia amongst the bands they compare with, I don’t quite see why. They are not particularly original in their approach and of the water theme that I read it is hard to really make it out when listening to the album. But the sound mastered and mixed by Mularoni is great, it bears his trademark. I also think the vocalist does a decent job, but that the album is a bit too long to really shine.

Perhaps they should have gone for that vinyl, by doing an album to fit on one vinyl record they would have been forced to be more selective with what they included and that could only have benefitted the album. But now they don’t seem to release it in the vinyl format, I think that is too bad, but who am I to argue? And perhaps the label didn’t believe it was worth the cost to make a double vinyl as that would be way more expensive than a single record. Other than being to long there isn’t that much to fault this album with, it is a very solid effort with good songs and strong melodies – what might be missing is that outstanding hit song, the one that draws you to return to the album.

If you like the band names thrown around in this review there is a decent chance that you will find Aqva an agreeable album, at least it could be something worth checking out. But I find a little sad that the music isn’t as great as the cover, but they were made by two different artists, and I know which one I prefer.

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