Anarion
Unbroken
Riot!



With the band coming from a clearly power metal background, Melbourne's Anarion may surprise some listeners with a thrashy and aggressive opening riff to their second album 'Unbroken'. Musically, the album hovers somewhere between power and thrash metal, with plenty of speed and some technical flare on show but ultimately it lacks on almost all fronts. In the case of the opening track New Eyes, Old Lies, its impressive start is spectacularly shattered by irritating and substandard vocals being switched from one stereo channel to the other. Rather than grabbing the listener from the outset, this little disaster undermines all expectations of what's to come. Sound harsh? Give it a listen yourself.

A few ballads go a long way to saving the album, most notably in the vocal department, but the 7 minutes of Live In Me glide by without raising a protest. It's smooth and emotive without going too over the top but the ways in which these slower songs outshine the rest of the material only make the album seem unbalanced and unsatisfying. There's plenty of potential for something interesting and punchy to develop but there's absolutely no follow through. The end of Blind Mortality has some rhythmically Tool-esque grunt to it which is enjoyable (and almost justifies the pointless potting about on the drums and channel switching which immediately precedes it) but sadly, moments like these are the exception.

In short, the music is boring and fails to satisfy any desirable criteria of a gripping or epic metal album, while the vocals are mostly a persistently soaring power metal whine. Everything this album offers can be taken from the first listen and, unfortunately, not a lot of it will be remembered.

Mike Cross