Xana Records 2003
Review by 7 September 2003

5th album already by this band from Northern Spain. The main force here is guitarist/songwritter/producer Alberto Rionda, and with this brand new line up featuring Ramón Lage on vocals he has scored a goal IMHO. The style of the band has changed a lot in this album from previous power metal to a richer, melodic metal.

Los Poetas Han Muerto is, as you can easily imagine, an album with Spanish lyrics, which to you foreigners may not sound too appealing, but it's the music that talks here, and let me tell you this album has enough elements to be worth a try. The musical direction of the band has changed a lot in this last effort. Rionda has stretched the spectrum quite a bit turning the sound of the band into a more melodic one, without losing the edge. There are also lots of progressive twinks in many songs. The opener Lucero is an oniric image of a longed for, yet unreachable love, there was a bit of controversy over here when it was picked as the first single for the album, but time has proved it a wise choose. It's my fave of the album at the moment, but there are other songs which can turn into favourites with time, like Niño, El Viejo Torreón, with a very melodic chorus or Madre Tierra. Ramón Lage's vocals fits really well into the stuff. He might lack a bit of power in his voice sometimes, but nonetheless he's a very good singer. Other remarkable tracks are Cien Veces, with progressive touches, Alborada, a very nice ballad, or the title track. I would add here that the lyrics are mainly very introspective, yet sometimes with a point for optimism at the chance of a better tomorrow.

Vinny Records 2002
Review by 19 december 2001

What ? A Spanish progmetal band you say ? Now this I gotta hear ! The guys of Avatar aren’t fresh musicians, they’ve been around for years in different bands and with a different name. You hardly hear this kinda stuff coming from Spain and I had heard some ravings about this band, so of course I was interested in hearing if the rumours were true.

Well, right on the first listen the singer really caught my atten- tion. Not that he’s that bad, but he does need some singing lessons and the english pronounciation needs much work too. But that only bothe- red me after I started reading the lyrics and realized I couldn’t keep up with the guy too well,‘cos he was on his own planet. He reminds me of the singer of Tad Morose, if you want to know what he sounds like.

The opener “See The Sorrow” was my faves on this cd among the title track (which only lasts over a minute and is a slow one) and “Eyes Of Love”, if I have to pick something. It’s kinda hard to pick faves from here, ‘cos this cd lacks of something. The music is very well done in the vein of progressive metal, but this band is still on the path of finding themselves. They’re not very far from it though, the ideas are really good and you can notice these guys are fans of Dream Theater, as they’ve got the same touch. Just listen to the keys and the guitar. And the lyrics are also in the same category, though somehow I got the feeling, that maybe Spaniards really are on their own planet the way the lyrics were arranged. Chaotic and mysterious.

AV Records 2003
Review by 3 July 2003

Do you remember Aviary? I'm talking about the original Pomp/Rock act from the 70's here. Only one album release in the late 70's I'm afraid [Epic Records], before they kind of disappered into obscurity. Not quite all of them though as Brad Love [vocals/keys] released a solo album back in 1982 and another one just recently [Through Another Door - 2002].

This CD is a collection of previously unreleased material from 1975 to 1979. Long lost treasures who's been locked away in the vault ever since. The sound quality is perfect for its time and we're not talking about crappy, barely soundable demos here. The overall material is perhaps not as strong as their self titled album. Not that strange either since this is mostly 'leftover' and rejected stuff in the first place.

Stichting Awake 2002
Review by 18 May 2003

Awake are a Dutch band that was formed back in 1995, but became a real band in 1998. Their style has influences from a lot of things and it’s pretty hard to just name one band they are similar to. They are mainly hard rock with some pop elements and a progressive touch with some Rammstein popping out here and there. They still sound scattered and unbalanced at times and the mix is terrible with the guitar coming out too much and in the end they sound too primitive and raw, this kind of music demands thicker sounds than this.

The vocals have a hint of that old Geoff Tate (Queensrÿche) back in the 80’ies and even David Byrne. They could be better though, they’re somewhat weak most of the time. More practise and that should do it. There’s four songs here and ”End Of A Star” is definately the best one. It features a guest singer Tamara Feddema, singing duet with Johan Faber. This one is a melodic, powerful song and with Tamara this reminds of the likes of The Gathering. I’m thinking this band should work more on songs like this, there’s various parts here that make the song interesting and if they worked more on the vocal lines (more on top vocal harmonies), this would sound perfect.

The second song ”Don’t Stop” is just a straight through rocker and ”Gone” starts from mellow, turning into a midtempo, mostly straight pop/rock song. This band has a little bit of Marillion in them as well, but not that much that fans of them would find this from their collection without a doubt. Awake is more complex and demands more attention. The last song ”Open Eyes” is the most progressive, Rammstein-like, but there’s too much air here and not enough of that ”ramming”, it’s not really happening. And when it could start happening, the song ends. All the songs here are the average length, actually two are quite short, under four minutes !

Arise Records 2003
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallström,
11 January 2004

Bummer! It turned out that Axenstar's new vocalist (Magnus Winterwild) is none other than their old vocalist. A change of lastname (from Eriksson to Winterwild), and a pair of new shoes, doesn't add that much excitement to the overall picture though.

It's the same trottle metal as before and there's at least 100 bands out there, with a similar sound, only better performed. I'm really impressed with the two lead guitarists Peter Johansson and Thomas Eriksson though. They are pretty much all over the place with flashy solos and power riffing.

MTM Classix 2004
Review by Urban "Wally" Wallstrom,
3 March 2004

Axia came out of Sweden in the mid 80's and their out of ordinary singer Peo Pettersson, was later found (and still today actually since last years comeback) upfront with Christian Rockers Leviticus. Their one and only selftitled album was previously only avilable on vinyl and it's always nice to find Swedish hardrock re-released on CD. This time with four bonus tracks I may add.

You can actually find quite a lot of similarities to Leviticus "Knights Of Heaven" release here... even if I find the latter to be superior. In fact, it seems like Peo re-used some of his Axia lyrics for "Knights Of Heaven" as the track "On My Way" opens up with the same words and phrase as Leviticus "Messiah" ("It took some time to find my way back home again..."). You may also remember "Isn't It Love" from above mentioned Leviticus album and here you'll have "It Ain't Love" instead. The groove and foundation is based/built upon the same kind of rock though (heh,heh, rock... getit?), and it certainly rocks most of the time.

AFM Records/Rock Inc 2004
Review by 11 December 2003

Axxis have already been around since 1988, and "Time Machine" is their 8th studio album and probably their best so far. Axxis combines the rock sound of the seventies and eighties with metal influences from nowadays and this works out excellent. This album is full of powerful, catchy melodies with great choirs, variation and bombastic instrumental parts.

"Angel Of Death" is one of those great songs, the easy start, then the mysterious guitar riff, followed by grunts and choirs and lots of different rhythms. The title track and "Wind In The Night" are also packed with catchy refrains; sing along hymns and powerful and even aggressive guitar parts. In fact the whole album sounds very fresh and exciting, maybe also due to the role of the female voice of Lakonia, which adds warmth and definitely an extra, interesting dimension to the music of Axxis.

Inside Out 2004
Review by Jorge Antonaya,
15 June 2004

The Human Equation is already the sixth studio album by Arjen Lucassen under the Ayreon moniker. As most of his previous works, this is both a concept album and a rock opera, a genre that nowadays is well alive, and Lucassen is not a lesser part in its come back. The album tells the story of a business man (James LaBrie) that falls into a coma as a result of a car accident (well, at least that’s the initial idea). While, at his bed, his wife (Marcela Bovio), his father (Mike Baker), and his best friend (Lucassen) fear for his life, his character encounters Fear (Mikael Åkerfeldt), Agony (Devon Graves), Rage (Devin Townsend), Pride (Magnus Ekwall), Love (Heather Findlay), Reason (Eric Clayton), and Passion (Irene Jansen) - all of whom are fighting for attention within the consciousness of the injured man. Will he become a different person as a result of this? Well, you’ll have to dig into the story to find the solution.

Musically, The Human Equation is an outstanding blend of different styles, from folk to extreme metal, with progressive metal, melodic rock, pop, and everything else you can imagine. It is incredible how he (Lucassen) manage to give every part of the story the musical environment it needs. More so since, allegedly, he wrote the music first and only then started to write the story and the subsequent lyrics. Absolutely amazing are the vocal performances of each and every singer involved, from James LaBrie, (singing in quite a different way to what we are used to in Dream Theater), to Arjen Lucassen himself. Specially noteworthy is the discovering of Mexican female singer Marcela Bovio who did a great job as the wife of the main character. Lucassen has succeeded in getting the best out of every vocalist, giving each character the performance, feeling and technique needed. The production is also close to perfection, not easy due to the pretty wide dynamics of the music. Pointing out any highlight is difficult partly due to the overall great quality of the tracks and partly due to the nature of the album, a concept one, in which a separate song usually doesn’t put you in the mood of the whole story, however, almost any track in there could do it problem free. Day Four: Mystery, Day Five: Voices, (with storming keyboard driven metal parts), Day Eight: School (with operatic choirs) or the single Day Eleven: Love, an amazing mid-tempo with amazing backing vocals. Some might claim that the second disc, (forgot to mention it, but this is a double album), is somehow weaker than the first one, but to me this is only due to the development of the story, and tracks like Day Twelve: Trauma, Day Fourteen: Pride, Day Fifteen: Betrayal (with an astonishing performance by Irene Jansen), Day Sixteen: Loser (great vocals full of both emotion and humor by Mike Baker), Day Eighteen: Realization (symphonic rock as good as it gets), or the final crescendo in Day Twenty: Confrontation, prove that this second disc is far from weak at all.