Italy is a supplier of a lot of power these days, from epic to bombastic muddles. Bands like Rhapsody, Labyrinth, … they all grew up with Helloween as their example. Airborn says they’re influenced by the German Gamma Ray, Iron Savior and Blind Guardian, but claim they have a style of their own. The band has existed since 1996 and, in 1998, released a self produced demo CD ‘Born to fly’. Two years later contacts were being laid with producer Piet Sielck which resulted in the recording of this debut album ‘Against the world’. After a modern sounding intro with keyboards and guitar, the title track starts. The music firm, in an energetic Helloween way. ‘Born to fly’ dates back from a while ago, but that isn’t noticeable at all. In the lyrics, the swords brandish richly and ‘The Hero’ is welcomed with great pathos. Then a few straight rockers follow, like ‘Projectyle’ and ‘Return to the sky’. Regretfully, the band goes AOR with the long expected but corny, slow ‘Cry Now’. The following ‘Wings’ feels much better, opening with keyboards, passing into staccato rhythms and, on top, the voice of Piet Sielck. After a long ‘Sky City’and ‘Infernal Machine Two’ the CD ends instrumentally. The first edition is a digi-pack with a CD ROM bonus track of the video ‘The Hero’ The déjà entendu feeling vanishes after listening a few times and you start to sing along and bang your head. Especially to the refrains, mostly followed by splashing guitar work. Accessibility foremost, and that’s quite nice sometimes. Review : Vera ‘Gothica’ Translation : Walter ‘HaHa’ Haentjens |
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