Released: 2006
Melbourne’s Anarion has come a very long way since their first album The Journey Begins… from 2001. Indeed, Unbroken is perhaps one of the best Australian metal releases of 2006, albeit a greatly undiscovered one. This is an album of unabashed heavy metal, an excellently-produced volume of grace, style and speed that is a far cry from the ritualistic power metal evident on their debut.
As good as this album is, Unbroken does start off on shaky ground. The very first track is a pure speed metal belter that would be a true gem if the entire bridge section wasn’t a direct Strapping Young Lad rip-off, the blatancy of which left me thoroughly aghast. Beyond this audaciously plagaristic act, however, Anarion has made a terribly strong and original sounding album. It’s always good when a band takes the time to analyse what they need to do and how they want to sound and Anarion has obviously done a lot of homework. The songwriting is drastically improved, resulting in catchy, flowing tracks.
The playing was always quite good but on Unbroken the band pull off some truly spectacular and breathtaking moves including some mind-numbingly face-melting guitar solos that would leave even some far more established players gasping in awe. Vocally, Riccardo Mecchi is melodic and powerful without sounding like a million other power metal singers, something that could be said for Anarion as a unit. While they can no doubt be considered among the legions of power metal acts, Anarion’s music is distinctive and draws from a wide and diverse frame of reference that encompasses a range of genres.
If there was a need, the closest Australian artist I could compare them to is possibly Dungeon, whose sound they admittedly do come close to at times (certainly fans of that band would love this), but Unbroken shows Anarion to be a band that is developing a sturdy sense of identity and with material as strong as this deserve to have a bigger share of the national metal stage.
- New Eyes, Old Lies
- Blind Mortality
- Greed of Man
- Live in Me
- Broken Truths
- Below
- Conflicting Self
- Buried
- Another Level
Rating: 90%
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