After being celebrated, quite rightly for their incredible debut album, The Approbation, AVKRVST return with its follow up Waving At The Sky. Now you may be expecting a sequel to that grandiose debut but Waving At The Sky is actually a prequel to the events of The Approbation, a clever way for the band to realign their sound as it doesn’t have to be exactly like the first album. It's very bleak and emotionally powerful album that's built on familial tragedy and loss, hooked around the track The Trauma, which is the catalyst for the entire story to come setting the tone for another conceptual journey.
With their previous release I compared them to the likes of Opeth, Steven Wilson and even King Crimson, though they are a five piece band, they have three members that supply keys and synths, allowing a cinematic sound to permeate as the metallic edges are so often accompanied by the melodic passages. Martin Utby, Øystein Aadland, and Auver Gaaren bring Mellotron, organs, acoustic/electronic synthesizers and Moog, these densely layered synths all adding, the classic prog atmospherics of these bands. While they played a part on the debut album their position seems more important on Waving At The Sky, perhaps due to the more introspective, aggressive and melancholic nature of the album the use of synths and keys is more affecting.
Still there’s plenty of metal about as Øystein Aadland's bass drives Preceding which is an overture of sorts before things really kick off on the jazzy strains of The Trauma. Here Simon Bergseth and Edvard Seim guitars bring some heavy riffage Martin Utby banging the hell out of the drums on the albums opening salvo, reminiscent of the debut with the compositional skills of Simon Bergseth and Martin Utby on display, it's a short shock to the system where clean and harsh vocals intertwine to begin the tale.
From here we take those routes into expansive prog, as Families Are Forever flows with repressed aggression, building slowly into a soaring guitar solo and strings towards the end as we shift into Conflating Memories which has where the King Crimson style looms, parps of flute between a riff that unfolds. So far it's a brooding release, the darkness of the concept really biting home, like Dream Theater's Scenes From A Memory meets Six Degrees Of Inner Turbulence on the start stop, heavy metal moment that is the forceful Ghosts Of Yesteryear.
The Malevolent on the other hand is bouncy, gothic, melodic number that features Haken's Ross Jennings on co-vocals, another of the diverse ways AVKRVST shift their approach on Waving At The Sky. As the album closes with the epic title track the mood doesn’t lighten as such but there’s a catharsis to it that leads into the more melodic strains of The Approbation. Like Star Wars releasing the record backwards has made sure they can develop two distinct albums while keeping their similarities in place. Another stunning record from AVKRVST. 9/10
Fairyland - The Story Remains (Frontiers Music Srl)
Cinematic strings reminiscent of Howard Shore, John Williams or Hans Zimmer? Spoken word telling a tale of fantasy realms? First track begins with double kicks and shredding guitars? It must be power metal! It is folks! French symphonic power metal band Fairytale return with their first album since the passing of their founding keyboard player Phil Giordana. While Willdric Lievin (guitar/bass) the other longest serving member remains, the line up on this fifth studio album is pretty much all new, with the exception of drummer JB Pol.
Giordana left music to work on but this album had a hard road so as they recorded and wrote The Story Remains they looked to define themselves as the next chapter in Fairyland’s epic history. This meant that with new musicians, they could put their own style and background to the songs, without straying too far from the vision of Giordana. Joining on vocals is Archie Caine, who has a very high register in the European style, but showcases his broad range on the record, reminding of Tony Kakko of Sonata Arctica. Brieuc De Groof joins on guitars bringing some of his extreme metal history to darker moments such as Hopeless Still.
It’s Gideon Ricardo who has the toughest job though as he takes the band founders position behind the keys and proves to be exceptional with his melodies, leads and orchestrations making the record sound massively symphonic, especially on Unity, creating the fictional fantasy world that this album is based around, though he provides a more contemporary style on The Chosen One, although it isn’t long before we’re back on familiar ground with the epic Unbreakable (my favourite track here).
This is classic Fairyland but for modern times, the band creating a new legacy in their latest form, of course looking to the past, but embracing the future too. As a special treat original singer Elisa C. Martin re-joins the band for a version of Suffering Ages originally by Hamka her band with Willdric Lievin and JB Pol. The story of Fairyland doesn’t just remain, it continues in bombastic fashion on this new record. Long may it continue! 8/10
Savaged - Rising (No Remorse Records)
It's on No Remorse Records so it's going to be speed/trad/thrash/doom metal. Usually very retro in style and production but with contemporary skills to make it sound old school without being just the limitations of the equipment. Savaged are speed metal from Barcelona Spain and they have quickly followed up their 2024 debut Night Stealer with a sophomore release Rising.
Savaged played Headbangers Open Air 2023 without having an album so they certainly have a live pedigree behind them, with comparisons to Riot (V), Tokyo Blade and even Priest, this leather clad mob encapsulate the 80's metal scene well, hitting the road with their spiky guitars and bullet belts, honing their skills and these songs on stage before jumping into Moontower Studios to record them so they get back on the road.
The dual harmonies of Jamie Killhead and Joan Grimalt are in melodic synchronicity on all 9 tracks but especially on The Long Walk while Across The Burning Fields puts some Malmsteen-like lead playing with galloping bottom end from Aleix Coll (bass) and Cristian Blade (drums). There's a lot of speed metal like I said but they have a bit of glam coming on Fire It Up, some chest beating fantasy metal on the chuggy The Conquered while Stars Are Falling takes a more epic track with a bit of a Queensryche influence stretching the histrionic vocals of Killhead.
Rising is a great follow up from Savage, it keeps with what they do well while also expanding their approach into other areas of 80's metal. 8/10
Signeri - Signeri (ViciSolum Productions)
Dark Swedish metal now as Signeri bring their self titled debut album. They are four piece who play dark, blackened metal inspired by the dark arts and the occult.
In the for fans of section it states bands such as Tribulation and Satyricon and you can hear the imprint of both these acts on this album. The music is too melodic to be classed as pure black metal, having a mechanised thump on Legion Strong, then Setting Fire To Worthless has the ominous gothic industrial edge of Septicflesh.
It's the use of brass and organs that's flesh out the soundscapes of Signeri, it takes them from being just another band who play a more melodic version of black metal into being one that takes risks. The issue is that no matter how many risks they take they stick rigidly to black metal sqwarks in the vocals.
For me a bit of diversity wouldn't go amiss as it does mean a lot of them are a bit one note, with the exception of Hills Painted Red where there's a fair whack of death doom. Signeri is an album that puts the band on the right path but they need to sort the vocals out a little. 6/10
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