Label: Elevate Records
Release date: 5/15/2020
Production: Srdjan Branković
Album length: 41.35 min
Genre: Power Metal / Progressive Metal
Rating: 8.5/10
AlogiA are at heart a power metal band, but with just the right dose of prog-metal “tickle” in all the right places. After six years they’re back on the scene with a fresh studio effort called “Semendria”. It’s the band’s fifth studio album overall, from a group that had already built up international recognition, and not only thanks to the high quality of their studio work but also their seriously convincing live shows. They’ve been around since 2000, which means they’ve just stepped into their third decade and, on top of their remarkable technical chops, are also very seasoned. In the six years since the excellent predecessor “Elegia Balcanica”, a nice bagful of concrete ideas piled up for writing new songs. “Semendria” once again buckles under razor-sharp guitar phrasing, complemented by the crossfire of witty, bravura solo escapades from guitars and keyboards. The backbone of it all is relentless speed-demon frenzy, a thoroughly flattening tornado rolling along on double bass drum pedals. Everything is wrapped in the classicism of exquisitely refined keyboard arrangements, and the bombastic, grabby feel of the record is crowned by the explosive, commanding vocals of the incredible Nikola Mijić. After this intro you’d quickly conclude that AlogiA are (probably) playing their own version of power metal.
All of that is true. And there’s more. The new album also has a few moments that lean into classic progressive metal and come closest to what Symphony X used to do (in the 1998–2002 era), or Angra on their first three albums. The keyboard arrangements often work like an “orchestra in one”, but they add an essential element that makes a big difference. The neoclassical touches are quickly overtaken by Balkan melodic ornamentation, with violin, frula and flute joining the arrangements, courtesy of additional guests. The band also uses these parts to break up the rhythm at the same time, borrowing structures from traditional Balkan folk music, which is one of the key ingredients of the special theater that’s unique to this lineup. That’s the guarantee that gives AlogiA – within the narrow wiggle room of being “trapped” in the power metal genre – a recognizable, homegrown musical identity. At the same time, it’s an effective trade in “arabesque” elements, which in a thrilling way creates the album’s shifts in mood, a generator of tense theatricality and dynamics.
This album is partly conceptual. The stories of some of the songs are tied to cities built during the Roman Empire. Starting with the opening title track “Semenderia”, which comes from the Roman name for the Serbian town of Smederevo, which is also where AlogiA come from.
For the new album, AlogiA brought in three big names of metal vocals: Tim “Ripper” Owens (among others Judas Priest, Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force), Mark Boals (Yngwie J. Malmsteen’s Rising Force, Royal Hunt) and Fabio Lione (Angra, Rhapsody of Fire, Labyrinth, Vision Divine). The funny thing is that Nikola Mijić is actually no less of a star, since he also sings for the excellent British melodic rockers Eden’s Curse. What’s more, the three guest vocalists don’t create any particular contrast or expressive departure when you compare them with Nikola’s contribution, which means the invitation to take part in this album was most likely a marketing move. If we linger a bit longer on the big names of the three guest singers, they deliver exactly what once earned them lasting fame and adoration among heavy metal fans. Adding fuel to the fire, all three tracks, that is the opening title track, the second one Eternal Fight (The Eternal) and Viscantia, are tailor-made for the vocal registers in which they’re strongest. That’s why all three singers unleash incredible vocal firepower. But as I said… Nikola Mijić shines and glows on this album with no less vocal intensity, which of course is more than enough for the band.
As I said, if AlogiA didn’t keep building escape hatches into their arrangements, into sections that speak to progressive metal – where they also “fracture” the rhythms the Balkan way and develop melodies built on Arabic scales – this album would fade into generic territory. Raise Your Fist (For Metal Unity) could work as a clone of any HammerFall song, and yet it doesn’t. Maybe my ears have simply heard too much in this life, but it’s an interesting observation that in the verse and the brief transition into the chorus, the vocal melody of Like A Fire (Electrified) pulls on an “ancient” hit by AOR champions Dare Abandon, even though it’s cooked up from a completely different genre and production setup. Given the decline of power metal and the gradual decline of first-generation progressive metal bands, “Semendria” too, despite its great ambition, feels a bit archaic in 2020, but at the same time still interesting enough, because here too AlogiA establish themselves as a band with a strictly recognizable musical character, which sets them firmly apart from the sea of average gray.
“Semendria” is an ambitious new release from a band that boasts exceptional chemistry and tightness, razor-focused arrangements, brilliant technical execution, high conceptual and atmospheric dynamics and, very importantly, songs that are short and punchy, with no wasted bursts of energy. Every one of them delivers an effective mix of primal metal punch, bombast and expressive flexibility, which, with its Balkan melodic and rhythmic elements, keeps stirring things up by painting the mysteries of the lost days of Antiquity and Byzantium. Artistically, AlogiA have outgrown their previous studio efforts in maturity with the new album.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
01 Semenderia
02 Eternal Fight (The Eternal)
03 Raise Your Fist (For Metal Unity)
04 Like a Fire
05 Can’t Bring Yoiu Down
06 The Calling
07 Visantia
08 Beyond Belief
09 From East to West
Lineup:
Nikola Mijić – vocals
Srdjan Branković – guitar, bass guitar
Miroslav Branković – guitar
Mladen Gošić – keyboards
Nevena Branković – piano, keyboards
Marko Milojević – drums
Guest musicians:
Tim Ripper Owens – vocals on track no. 1
Mark Boals – vocals on track no. 2
Fabio Lione – vocals on track no. 7
Nada Nikolič – pipe
Sandra Mašič – flute
Vladimir Uralarević – violin
John Ivan – guitar solo
