One thought for all bands that are starting: if you want to be a successful act, to be great and to be recognized in the world, you need to be different from the others. This tip is not mine, but came from the past, and one who mentioned words about it was the founding father of Metal, Tony Iommi himself. Then, there is no space for other thoughts and cloning is not acceptable, no matter what you have to say. Look into the future, explore possibilities, and open a way for yourself. You must play your music as ALCYONA do on the band's first album, "Trailblazer".

The quintet is playing a fine form of Symphonic Metal in the same vein of names like NIGHTWISH, using very good keyboards orchestrations, but with excellent and heavy guitars and a solid rhythmic session. The female vocals are lovely, filling the songs with a melodic and charming feeling. Obviously it's nothing new at all, but they show a good amount of identity on "Trailblazer". The album was produced by Evgeniy and Natalia Malei, and mixed Max Forneus. The sound quality is really very good (besides there are points where we can feel and abrasive and raw touch that gives some aggressiveness to their music, especially on guitars), with everything sounding clear and with the right tunes. Of course, you can understand what the band is playing during the entire album.

Although it's their first release, "Trailblazer" brings to the fans some really excellent songs, as we can hear on "Enchantment" (the chorus is really very good, and the vocals are fitting perfectly on the instrumental basis), the technical and aggressive "DreamRoad" (the aggressiveness comes from the guitars, with a fine work on the riffs), the perfect mix between very good melodies and fine orchestrations on "Osceola", the Power Metal touches that appears on "Circle of Life" (a fine moment from bass guitar and drums), the fine contrast created by aggressive and fast guitar riffs with perfect keyboards parts shown on the excellent "Lost in the Valley", and the mix between a melodic and introspective beginning with a fine heavy and melodic end of "Моя Весна (My Spring)".

I can't see into the future (as no one can), but I think that "Trailblazer" is just the beginning for a band with potential to be great. So let's hope for a great future for ALCYONA.