Unbroken

Anarion is one of the bands that really got me excited with their debut. It was a melodic and powerful display of guitar shredding, powerhouse drumming and powerful soaring vocals. Unbroken ends up taking a few of these points and combining them with a new thrashing style. Unbroken while different from The Journey Begins is still very strong.

The album kicks off with New Eyes Old Lies a thrashy track with two killer shred solos. It has some haunting vocals, hitting the high register with absolute ease. The next track Blind Mortality starts off with a slower guitar attack with wailing vocal lines backed up by melodic solos, a few of them to be precise. The end coda is rather strange building up like a heart beat with the bass and drums swelling till a screaming finish. Greed of Man follows; it is an absolutely killer track with strong guitar riffs, insanely fast solos, powerful drumming with heaps of cymbals. The song feels absolutely full of sound. Next we have Live in Me. This track is mostly acoustic playing some nice soft chords and arpeggios. The song takes a while to build up but the vocals are very melodic, with a lot of range and different tones, it seems almost perfect for the guitar itself. However the song doesn't have enough drumming as it seems to be unimportant to the track. The solos in the song are pretty long and slow, but they fit the power ballad really well.

Next we have Broken Truths. It isn't exactly the best track on this album. It is fast, but the vocals seem a bit annoying as they don't have a great deal of control here. With the gang vocals it comes across as being too cheesy and loses some major aggression. The solo is rather average as it is far too short and rather boring. Below is another power ballad, it plays some dreary chords and arpeggios. It is very slow and never gets anywhere until the very last solo of the song. Otherwise it’s pretty forgettable. Conflicting self is similar to Live in Me however it has no build up or solo. It is mainly just acoustics and vocals. Not the best cut, in fact I believe it to be the worst track on the album. Buried comes storming in here. Buried in fact is a 50 odd second interlude, but its just pretty much the same thing over and over again. It then is followed directly by Another Level. This track is a refresher, fast, with strong drums and vocals. The solo is quite cool building up with harmonies and strong shred passages to a strong finish. However the song at the end only fades out, which I hate on albums.

Lastly we have Over the Wall, a bonus track for the Japanese version of the album. This track fits very well with the sounds of the 80's to be honest. The track has soft distorted arpeggios with strong chorus riffs. The actual vocals show a great mastery over the style of vocals. The solo is the best on the album and the song itself is never weak in any place. It is the best song on the album.

With Unbroken Anarion really secures a more mature and solid sound. The twin guitar attack of Steve Stergiadis and Ricardo Mecchi really stand up. Ricardo’s vocals also have great power and range. However the album in the very middle is the weakest overall. If you want power metal look at Anarion's debut, if you want a mature sounding heavy metal band look at this album, Unbroken.