Label: Phonotraxx Publishing
Release date: 12. 7. 2024
Production: Berhnard Weiß & Harry Öllers
Album length: 41.32 min
Genre: Hard Rock / Melodic Metal / Power Metal
Rating: 8.5/10
Axxis are the old guard of the German hard rock and heavy metal scene. It’s been a long time since their debut “Kingdom Of The Knight” flung the doors wide open for them – that year’s best-selling hard rock album in Germany, no less. It even sent them out on a serious tour, opening for none other than Black Sabbath – on 27. 9. 1989 they played, among other places, Hala Tivoli. The second album, “Axxis II”, cemented their position the following year.
The years rolled on, and Axxis – where only singer Bernhard Weiß and keyboardist Harry Öllers are left from the lineup of those distant days – gradually shifted their style in later years from a pompous, glam-metal-tinged hard rock formula toward the leanings of power metal. They never gave up on mixing catchy melodies with pompous punch, though. Thanks to the partnership of those two musicians, they survived every storm, even through the years when the music industry had long since turned its back on them.
These days they have their own label, Phonotraxx Publishing, which put out what they say is the last album of their career, called “Coming Home”. So the circle is closing. This time Öllers and Weiß have pulled together some seriously enviable, infectious anthems, and the band’s fifteenth studio album “Coming Home” is bursting with melodramatic pomp. Tracks like Blackest Vision, Moonlight Bay, Irish Way of Life and I Won’t Sell My Soul just crackle with bombastic energy, and “Coming Home” is a record where the band has found, in a way, the perfect balance between ultra-musical hard rock bombast and power metal elements, delivering an album that, with its polished ideas, brings the band back to at least the quality level of the brilliant “Doom Of Destiny” (2007). Through all their years together the band never abandoned its original formula, and the link to the early era has stayed audible throughout. “Coming Home” is in fact the record that looks back to the era of the first albums most decisively, which in a way symbolizes the band’s decision to wrap things up with “Coming Home” itself.
Fans and longtime followers of this band will be thrilled with this release, though probably less so with the band’s intention to bow out of the scene with it. But if that has to happen, one thing is clear: Axxis are saying goodbye with “Coming Home” exactly the way they should. With dignity, because they can be especially proud of this album. Let it thunder properly through your speakers and on the upcoming September tour, which, of course, focuses only on German dates.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Tracklist:
1. Blackest Vision
2. Coming Home
3. Atlantica
4. Moonlight Bay
5. Dark Angel
6. Love Will Shine For Everyone
7. Irish Way Of Life
8. Legends Of Phantasia
9. Lord Of Darkness
10. Ready To Burn
11. Tears Of A Clown
12. I Won’t Sell My Soul
Lineup:
Bernhard Weiß – vocals
Harry Öllers – keyboards
Matthias Degener – drums
Rob Schomaker – bass guitar
Dirk Brand – drums
