Review Akrea - Lebenslinie 2009

When a label like Drakkar, which has been instrumental in the success of acts such as Nightwish, Lordi and Ensiferum, discovers a newcomer act in the Bavarian Provinces, this band really has to be special. Well that is what is said in the promo information that followed this record.

I have to give them that they are somewhat brave sticking to their mother tongue, that is of course German. That isn’t very usual, although I have seen a few of these German singing bands lately so they may be something of a trend or it may just as well be that their release dates happen to coincide to the same period in time. Who knows and who really cares anyway?

Musically the band known by some as Akrea play in a sub-genre that is usually called melodic death metal, they are part of that swamp of bands where it can be really hard to distinguish bands from. Musically they are dominated by heavy smattering fast paced drums and heavily distorted guitars in equally fast pace, but then things change a little from the bigger groups as the band has this melodic underside that comprise of a melodic guitar and some melodic subtones in the background to give the band a melodic touch. Of course the lyrics that is sung in German is also something that differentiate the band from the rest of the genre.

The very melodic, classical almost, intro track is excellent and the first time I hear it I find myself wondering how they will ruin such a good start when they begin singing. And as the intro fades and the opening track begins my fears grow stronger and then finally the singer opens his mouth and the record is ruined; well maybe not really ruined, but my opinion fell quite far.

After a few times listening to the album I have found a few beacons of lights, all alone in the night. The first beacon is the opening track which is fully instrumental and quite frankly very different from the rest of the album. After that the albums fails and falls deeply down and I loose hope until track number four that is called Dieser Klang and is the best track of the album, by far. This track is returning hope for me with its nice raw and powerful yet melodic tone. Then it all falls down again and the songs are not interesting, actually they are dull and makes it a pain to go through. But then, when you have almost given up hope something happens, the last track called Verlust is a powerful ending that actually redeems the record somewhat. It is funny how a good ending can make you feel that you wish somewhat more.

Still after thinking a bit I find myself a bit tricked from the good stuff as the band has clearly proven themselves capable of great music but at the same time proven themselves incapable of selecting the right songs for a complete album. When I listen to this record I find myself waiting for the great tracks and also wondering why there aren’t any good tracks, it is a weird record that is quite hard to judge properly.

In the end I find this record somewhat substandard with the exception of three tracks that are great instead. This makes me see that there is quite a bit of talent in this band and had they only been able to fill out their material with one or two good songs this could have been a good album. Well as there is potential in these guys we might se a good album the next time we hear about these German guys who sing in German.

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