Archangels in Black

Oh, come on! This is a lovely album. Its not fantastic but its a good ol'solid prog power album and I bet you me, of all the 6 or so prog power albums that will be released this year(yeah, I mean the ones worth checking out) this one right here will rank high up there with the best of them this year. This is one of those albums that achieve the purpose. The lyrical themes displayed in here are perfect, its a way above average album..its heavy, induces subtle headbanging..and at the end of it all, its almost worth forgetting. However, in my case, I found myself coming back to this album again and again why, am listening to it right now. What can I say; this album has grown on me. This is though my first outing with this French quintet.

The theme?! Well, I think the album title-Archangels In Black, couldn't be stressed any accurately. Its dark and its Gothic..flirting with a host of metal sub genres(mainly goth and black) but above all remains true to prog power. Just that the whole dark-ish concept is not lost to us, Adagio has gone on to add some aggressive/harsh vocals for good measure. These though are intelligently place throughout the album and you'll notice that where the harsh vocals are placed, there's also a heavy guitar riff for accompaniment. YES, at some points the album is as heavy as fuck. Take the opening track-Vamphyri for example, which is also one of my highlights off this album. The opening scream is one of the heaviest parts of this record and it is accompanied with a heavy-thrashy riff and well done kicks on the double bass. This riff continues, though subtly and fades a bit as the song progresses. Well done Keyboards fill this void left by the guitar only for that thrashy riff to come back towards the end, kicking your ass in various ways. The Astral Path which is track number two is almost characteristic of this formula only that it misses the harsh vocals. The opening riff is a bit similar to that of Vamphyri and Codex Obscura. However, its accompanied by synth like choir making the whole ambience somewhat epic. Speaking of epic, check out the beginning of, without a doubt, my favorite track on this record-Archangels In Black. The gloomy hellish bells at the start with a choir backing up some outstanding keyboard work is simply to die for. There is even a blast beat after this..yeah, u heard me right..fucking blast beat!

Lets not forget the riff department coz this album is oozing with a lot of that. Fear Circus, of which a video was done for, and which is also the most accessible song on this album has not only one catchiest bridges in "Let me please show you the way|The grim reaper awaits| Flat fifth whistle announces| The deadly departure" but also one of the catchiest riffs. The guitar player pretty much throws everything into the mix..thrashy, heavy and neoclassical riffs abound. So, imagine a fabulous head-bobbing riff and then an even more fabulous solo whipped over it. Yes folks, thats whats happening here. The solos are played dexterously..never rushed. Back to Vamphyri. Here the riffs are played at pace but when the solo comes in..at first, its loud crushing and a bit hurried but as it progresses, the guitarist manages to slow it down. However, this could almost go unnoticed because it doesn't disrupt the tempo of the song.

The only downside to this album I can think of, is that the second half of the album is not as interesting as the first. Like I said before, I am not familiar with Adagio's earlier work. If you are like me, pick this album up. If you have listened to their earlier stuff then kindly email me with how this compares.