Meden Agan – Erevos Aenaon (2011)

As one of the most professional sounding self-released album we have received in 2011, Meden Agan’s “Erevos Aenaon” can easily compete with any big-budget Gothic/Symphonic Metal album this year. With such a rich sound and excellent production, Meden Agan is ready to make a run at the spotlight and they sure have a good shot thanks to this excellent release.

Opening with “Black Sky”, the band immediately establishes its bombastic sound thanks to heavy keyboard use, pounding guitars, and angelic female vocals. The band’s female vocalist, Iliana Tsakiraki, delivers a very emotional performance that is greatly (and sometimes annoyingly) enhanced by extreme vocal layering. Her voice is very good and has some hints of Amberian Dawn and similar bands, not too sweet and not overly done like many classically trained singers come across.

“All Seems Lost” immediately captures your attention with a nice combo of pretty vocal layers and playful keyboards. The riffing is also pretty well crafted and not weak by any means. The overall atmosphere of the song is very dynamic and perfect for any fan of Gothic/Symphonic Metal. The choir sections give “Blinded by Faith” that extra push and level of bombasticness that few bands can achieve, but the nice solos are what make this song even more enjoyable.

The best song of the album comes with the name of “Dissolve into Grey”. In this track the band delivers a super emotional performance that topples any other track. The combination of powerful guitars with the soaring vocals and keyboards is just amazing. However, the only weak point that we find with this release is that after a while it all blends into sounding the same. While this is not a problem for hardcore fans of the genre, if you are looking for a huge amount of diversity in the sound of the band, you will not find it here.

The male harsh vocals are one of the elements that could have been done without, but it is not used that much so we can easily forget about it. The band’s songwriting skills are excellent and they clearly show it in tracks like “Universe Unseen”. The overall feel of this release is of a band that has been doing this for years and that should be more recognized around the scene. If you are interested in finding the next big thing on Gothic/Symphonic Metal, go and get “Erevos Aenaon”.

Release: September 23rd, 2011

Country: Greece