Against the World

Cianan, April 30th, 2007 Traveling is one of the many things that enjoy both physically and mentally. There is always a wonderful adventure filled with beautiful sights, odd things previously thought unimaginable, and relaxation. On the many trips of taken I’ve had the wonderful gift of music to guide me through every turn and twist, some intentional and others not. I always thought of music no matter the genre or band, as long as I liked it I was relaxing. Well, this debut album from Airborn swamps most of the competition. When listening to Airborn’s power metal frenzy of speed and keyboard antics one can enjoy some amazing music, and yet at the same time be very relaxed and look forward into what the next turn might bring you. Looking forward is an interesting statement seeing as Airborn’s lyrics reflect looking forward, looking into the future mostly space travel, but the lyrics will be more science fiction oriented on their sophomore album. The music is obviously my favorite aspect of this album. The songs range from mid-tempo to fast and furious keyboard infused songs. I keep bringing up keyboards, yet I’m not alluding to a flower metal dancing with the fairies kind of ****, though one could consider this borderline depending on how you look at it as the album is extremely melodic, think of a much faster Fairyland. The keyboards are primarily tied with the lyrics as they add to the science fiction theme a lot, not in some faggothic techno way either, in a league of their own I guess one could say playing a small role in some songs and a much larger in others. The guitars on the debut are very prominent and prove to be the driving force behind everything this album stands for. The riffs are very good, the production clear, and the solos fantastic. Many times I find myself walking down a random road and I’ll hear someone singing to some catchy chorus to a song that I’ve never heard, but in Airborn’s case you’ll simply say f**k the lyrics I want to hum the riffs they are that good. The vocals are good yet nothing extraordinary, and lean much more on the catchiness factor. The vocals don’t go falsetto (quite frankly I don’t think he could), and pretty much stay in the same tone the whole album save for “Wings” which they have a bit more of a harshness to them, but by no means a growl. The drums are quite fast and alternate a hell of a lot more than 95% of bands out there (no matter the genre) today. They are played fast along with the guitars, plenty of double bass, cymbal bashing, and snare slapping. The bass well, I didn’t notice it that much, but the music certainly doesn’t need it. The downsides are rare, but occasionally there are background vocalists (the other members of the band I presume) and at times they sound really fruity, and can sometimes make you go, “uh oh, the flowers are sprouting!”, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. I do wish that the solos were more prevalent as if the guitarists would I guarantee you they would shred like nobody’s business. However that does not help the fact that Airborn doesn’t do anything too different than the hordes of Power Metal bands that exist today and this band/release may get lost in the shuffle. I guess the best comparison I can come up with is a faster, less epic Fairyland, though at times I would take Airborn over Fairyland any day. So if you’re into Melodic Power Metal bands, want some good music you can relax to, and have an overall solid release check this out, especially since the sound would change a little on the second album…