AlogiA
Elegia Balcanica
Miner Records
2014
AlogiA is an interesting enough prog power band from Serbia, that have quite a high level of performance ability. They have been a going concern since the beginning of this millennium and this is their fifth album. The fact that they choose to sing in their native tongue, definitely makes them sound both exotic but also makes them a little difficult to get in for non-Serbian listeners. The album allegedly signals a return to the bands usual style after an attempt of the band to break into “alternative” territory that failed quite miserably on their previous album.
More specifically the band focuses on keyboard thick, ultra-fast power metal tenoric metal than on occasion however has some eastern scales thrown in and shows their Balkan roots, which they seem proud to display anyway.
As I cannot appreciate the album fully, for lack of comprehension of the language, I cannot fault their performances too much, they are rather good, but the overall production is way too thin and treble, so that is a bit of an issue that distracts from extracting greater pleasure from listening to the album. I will not go into specific songs, for the reason I mentioned above, but I will say that overall the songs seem to maintain a similar level of interest more or less and show that they have been worked on meticulously.
The title song has more “folk” touches while a couple of other numbers seem to have more contemporary ideas, but still, the overall attempt, shows a band that has tried quite a bit. The only oddity is the bands decision to include a “death metal” song at the very end of the album. You see the two brothers that started the band, are together in a number of bands including some mid-profile Serbian death metal ones and are big fans of the late Chuck Schuldiner, so “Intentionally Blind” is a dedication to him, but it’s totally out of climate – when compared with anything else on the album.
Overall a decent attempt, but it will appeal more to Serbian metallheads for obvious reasons.
More specifically the band focuses on keyboard thick, ultra-fast power metal tenoric metal than on occasion however has some eastern scales thrown in and shows their Balkan roots, which they seem proud to display anyway.
As I cannot appreciate the album fully, for lack of comprehension of the language, I cannot fault their performances too much, they are rather good, but the overall production is way too thin and treble, so that is a bit of an issue that distracts from extracting greater pleasure from listening to the album. I will not go into specific songs, for the reason I mentioned above, but I will say that overall the songs seem to maintain a similar level of interest more or less and show that they have been worked on meticulously.
The title song has more “folk” touches while a couple of other numbers seem to have more contemporary ideas, but still, the overall attempt, shows a band that has tried quite a bit. The only oddity is the bands decision to include a “death metal” song at the very end of the album. You see the two brothers that started the band, are together in a number of bands including some mid-profile Serbian death metal ones and are big fans of the late Chuck Schuldiner, so “Intentionally Blind” is a dedication to him, but it’s totally out of climate – when compared with anything else on the album.
Overall a decent attempt, but it will appeal more to Serbian metallheads for obvious reasons.