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Despite AVIANA’s apparent dissolving in March 2020, they’re back and stronger than ever, thanks to the constant efforts of frontman Joel Holmqvist. The full album has been a long time coming – almost every song has been released as a single so far, so the hype has been building for quite some time.
‘Rage’, one of the earlier singles to be released, starts with a spoken word excerpt of ‘Do not go gentle into that good night’, which already marks it as a heavy song that regards the questioning of faith, with lyrics that can be interpreted any which way you feel applies to you. In that way, it serves a solid purpose as an album that can mean something to anyone who listens to it. The raw power in Holmqvist’s voice is nothing to be scoffed at either, providing a well-balanced mixture of growls and clean vocals that lend themselves even better to the song’s message. It’s no wonder this was one of the first songs to showcase AVIANA’s new work.
The ninth track on the album, ‘Illuminate’, is one of the only songs that wasn’t released as a single prior to the album release, and the only one that utilises any vocal work. Regardless of its status as a non-single, it rounds out the album really well, with similarly good vocals – the choppy effect layered over them in bits gives the whole song a manic vibe that matches the rest of the album, immediately an energiser for anyone listening. The opening and closing tracks, ‘Curriculum’ and ‘Negligence’ are the only other two not already released, and they’re simple instrumentals, a well-crafted lead-in and an outro that gently lets you down from the aggression in the rest of the album.
One of the other standouts is ‘Paradox’, which features Marcus Vik of Invent Animate, whose voice complements Holmqvist’s brilliantly, as they rage with each other with perfect ferocity. It fits well into the album as a whole and bodes well for the future of AVIANA. Considering Holmqvist has taken this on mostly by himself, it’s an impressive feat, though it does feel more like – as he puts it himself – a ‘Collection of singles’ instead of a full album.
Available September 30th via Arising Empire,
For more information:
http://www.avianaofficial.com
http://www.facebook.com/avianaswe
http://www.instagram.com/avianaswe
Review – El Vipond
