I was really fortunate to have the chance to listen to a track by this band some time ago, a track that is contained in this album. I am talking about Reflections, a song that immediately attracted my attention because of its difference and unique sound. They say that the first impression is the most important, but unfortunately this thing does not apply to the case of AKPHAEZYA. Anyway, the French metallers (?) tried to create a concept that would take some space to be described.

To give you an image of this weird journey, I can say that the band has divided this concept into three parts. To be more exact, their official site says: AKPHAEZYA is an escapist invitation which can be divided into three levels: a literal one, a musical one and a visual one. You can now get in the whole trip of realizing what the band wants to do. To get more info about this project you can visit www.akphaezya.com/site/concept/index.htm and read a script that describes everything. One more thing that is worth mentioning is that this is actually a rerecorded version of the band's 2004 demo.

My job here is to 'judge' the musical 'level' of this project, so that's what I am going to do. I will just leave the rest to the experts. The album starts really slow and smooth and I was just about to start thinking that AKPHAEZYA decided to leave the Metal path until Chrysalis kicked in. The song features some really stunning drumming parts that are accompanied by Nehl's 'angelic' vocals and melodic guitar leads. Thank god there is Beguier who does some brutal backing vocals here or I would think I am listening to some guys that try to mix Nelly Furtado with EBONY ARK!

To tell you the truth, when I first saw the 'Influences' section in the band's Myspace page I thought that it was impossible for a band to mix elements from acts like MR. BUNGLE, ARCH ENEMY, PANTERA, ATROX and TOOL. As it seems I was right since AKPHAEZYA think that they can make an interesting blend of all these sounds, but they end up releasing an album that tries to maintain an original style...

They definitely try, but only some songs have the distinctive AKPHAEZYA sound. Most of the album varies from slow and melodic songs like Reflections, which is something like a mix between PINK MARTINI and LACUNA COIL (that's what I thought when I first listened to it), to a copy of ARCH ENEMY's sound in the song The Golden Vortex Of Kaltaz, where Nehl makes some brutal attempts but she's definitely not Angela.

All in all, this album is something that can be used as a compilation of various styles but not as a band's album, especially when it is its debut one. AKPHAEZYA have some stunning technical and composing skills but they didn't make the best out of it as it seems. They need to work on creating a more unique sound as well as knowing where their limits are.