Avian - Ashes And Madness

\r\n"Ashes And Madness" is the second album of US metallers Avian. Apart from its founder and guitarist Yan Leviathan, and the singer Lance King (Balance of Power, Krucible, Pyramaze, Shining Star), the remaining line-up has been replaced completely. Dave Ellefson, former Megadeth bassist left to pursue his career with the F5 and replaced by Brian Hollenbeck, at least for the live shows. If he will become a full member of the band ... it’s something that will be decided in the future. Bill Hudson (Cellador) replaced Roger Moore on lead guitar, while the keyboardist Jonah Weingarten withdrawn completely and that part was taken by Lance. And after all that historical references regarding the band’s line up let us see the album itself starting from the cover.
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\r\nFirst to say is that the cover was designed by Mattias Noren, who is not well known to the metal music industry. Some projects of him are as follows: Kamelot - Ghost Opera, Sabaton - Metalizer, Epica - The Divine Conspiracy. And because his work is in large scale and well known that is the reason that I was impressed with the mediocrity of the cover. The style of the cover is a somewhat post apocalyptic but artistically, creatively and in terms of inspiration it assembles more like a graphic design student project. Now why did this happen? How knows? The band didn’t  paid much to Mattias, the artist was not inspired too much, something must have happened. However it could be much better and more impressive. But let’s review the music itself.
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\r\nThe band certainly does not introduce new elements in the genre, but combines progressive, symphonic power metal and putting them into a harmonious balance. The music is somewhere between American power metal (Queensryche, Savatage and Crimson Glory), European power metal metal (Blind Guardian, Edguy and Helloween), adding a few of progressive metal, and a little of  Iron Maiden in conjunction with Lance’s vocals and you have the new album. The bad news, unfortunately, is that the music in several places a bit retro, bringing in my mind riffs from the 80s. Anything reminiscent of something familiar, and my first thoughts I had were Fates Warning’s - A Spectre Within and Savatage - Sirens. The album presents a number of diversities. Next to the heavier tracks like "Time And Space II: Unlock The Mystery" and the anthem "Into The Other Side", there are tracks like "All The King’s Horses" which is a very good mid tempo and would satisfy the fans of the kind . Despite the length of the album, it has no weak and indifferent songs, and this is a plus for the album.
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\r\nIn conlusion, I would like to add that the production is very good, honoring the modern sound standards that have been set. But apart from that, as I wrote, we have not listened to anything new. We should wait for the next album to see if the band decided to make a step further and offer something new or will again give us an album like "Ashes And Madness".\r\n

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\r\nKonstantinos Grevenitis \r\n

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