2006-02-01
I have to start this review by saying that I enjoyed almost every album that had Lance King singing in it, the ex-Balance Of Power/current Pyramaze vocalist hardly misses a beat when singing, he has the same operatic quality that Queensryche's Geoff Tate has, and he always gives the music an additional amount of class.
Avian is the brainchild of guitarist Yan Leviathan, not exactly an household name in the prog metal community, but he expect him to become one shortly, the guy put together a winning team of musicians in this album, with Jonah Weingarten (also from Pyramaze) doing a fantastic job on the keyboards, Roger Moore (no, not ex-James Bond) on lead guitar, David Small (from Dave Ellefson's F5) and the always dependable Dave Ellefson himself (Ex-Megadeth) On bass, to put this more clearly, the playing on this album is untouchable.
My main bone to pick with the release is the sound, it's not bad, but it could've been much better, the guitars come off as a bit fuzzy and the drums are a bit heavy handed, but it's not bad enough as to impair the listening pleasure.
The album's lyrical content is based on a Sci-Fi book that also gave the band it's name, it sounds interesting enough, but since I'll focus more on the music, it’s a combination of not overly-complex prog metal, with plenty of power metal and heavy metal leanings, not that far from King ex-band – Balance Of Power, though it comes off as an heavier effort, my favorite tracks on the album, The Fear and Single Blade Of Vengeance contain all the elements that work well in the album, grandiose melodies, memorable guitar riffs, they contain an amount of aggression that is lacking from most prog metal albums, and that is probably why I enjoyed this release so much.
The keyboard work here is one of the main focal points, it serves as a background in most tracks, and even gets center stage in a few others, again, unlike some prog albums, it does not throw the music into 70's prog rock scenery, it just serves as an added flavor.
All in all this is a very enjoyable album, the sound could have been a little better, it might have been good to edit out a track or two just to make the album more manageable, but it's still quite a melodic treat.
Alon Miasnikov
