“Anarion” is a band that formed in Melbourne, Australia, in 1999 and they released their debut album “The Journey Begins” in 2003.  The band members are Ricardo Mecchi on guitar and vocals, Steve Stergiadis on guitar, Luke Burnham on drums and Jee Frisina on bass.  The group play what can only be described as something between Power Metal and Heavy Metal (and when I say Heavy, I mean HEAVY!) with, at times, a little leaning towards a bit of Thrash Metal just for good measure.   

The music is extremely guitar heavy, the twin axe-men of Steve and Ricardo mashing out some seriously tasty fretwork together and presenting us with copious amounts of “in your face” riffing, with Ricardo also managing to multi task and belt out some fine mid to high range vocals.  Meanwhile, back on the drums, Luke continually pushes out a heavy, pulsing, in your face drum rhythm.  I am not a great fan of Power (double) drumming because I feel that too many people have tried to do it in the past, not quite got it right and ruined the whole song.  Power drumming needs to be perfect to be able to fulfil its purpose, and by god Luke is as near perfect as anyone could get.  That man must have forearms like “Garth” and calf muscles like “Arnie”! 

The album, for the most part, is filled with fast paced, pounding, guitar driven riff fests, but they also slip in some very tasty, slower, more acoustic songs such as “Live in Me”, “Below” and “Conflicting Self” to show that these guys don’t need to be loud and brash to make good music.  My favourite track being “Conflicting Self”, which is a big melodic ballad filled with layers of haunting, harmonic vocals and technically superb acoustic guitar work. 

Not all the songs are great, not all the songs are catchy, but all of the songs stay well above the “average” bar throughout the whole album.  It is not an album that gets in your head on the first play and it takes a couple of spins for you to able to see beyond the omnipresent and awesome wall of sound of the guitars to find the strong melodies and little hidden treasures within the drum work that are hidden beneath. 

It’s not my favourite type of music, but fans of Power/Heavy metal should check these guys out because they could be going places with this release and I do feel that these guys still haven’t reached their full potential.

Let us know your views on 'Unbroken'

Track List

New Eyes, Old Lies
Blind Mentality
Greed Of Man
Live In Me
Broken Truths
Below
Conflicting Self
Buried
Another Level

Line Up

Riccardo Mecchi - Vocals/Guitar
Luke Burnham - Drums
Joe Frisina - Bass
Steve Stergiadis - Guitar