AKRON (Il Tempio Di Ferro) LP/CD
I really had to grin, when I take a look into the booklet of the new AKRON, because the musicians are dressed like knights with swords and helmets etc. But AKRON are no Black or True Metal Band, and the reason for their funny outfit is the concept, Il Tempio Di Ferro" is based on - the crusades and templars. The vinyl edtion contains a 90 pages book, written by vocalist E. Mucci, where he explains his own studies about the crusades. But this leaves me cold like the music of this Italian band. The music is dominated from tons of cold and cheesy keyboard sounds, that reminds me to old PC games from the 80's, and the complete production sounds very synthetic.
Only when the hammond organ is playing a bigger role, as in "Deus Vult", I find it more comfortable. But I can't stand the opera-oriented vocals of E. Mucci, and I miss the sound of guitars here. The label-info says, that AKRON are free from any musical boundaries, but for me this is typical dark prog-rock. In opposite to other mystical prog-bands you can find on Black Widow Records , here's a big lack of energy, and the album sounds to artifical for my personal taste. I think, that "Il Tempio Di Ferro" must be interesting for fans of the Italian dark prog scene, and for friends of medieval role games, but I'm out of this.
(KK)