Anthea, an American Symphonic metal band formed in 2015 based out of California, are out with their debut album “Illusion. The album releases on the 23rd October under the record label of Rockshots records. The band has been active for quite sometime and have been known to kill it on stage; with their tight performance they definitely lure in the crowds. Well I wasn’t able to get much on the bands journey since their formative years, so I decided to jump right on to the album and give it a spin.
The album opens up with “Reach” with immense power and prose filling the soundscape, we oscillate from clean vocals to screams, duel it out on the guitars and keys, the song maintains its melody setting forth the onset of the album. “Eclipse” blasts off with a symphonic aura that resonates and surrounds while the vocals picks up the rugged ruthlessness to progress the song to the next bar. What surprises are the tweaks added every now and then giving an element of mystery making it truly an incredible prog track.
“Moirai” takes us on a duet, with collaborations from Chiara and Diego, and as the vocals hits high and eerie notes, giving the song an atmospheric soundscape, which coupled with the melody running parallel and culminating back to where it begins, but wait changing scales abruptly makes this song a treat to listen to . With “Illusion” we foray into aggression and fast paced riffs rummaging between the deathly growls neatly packed with an amazing amount of melody. There are some interesting sound arrangements which makes it a great listen, not only did I enjoyed the guitar rhythm variations that’s embedded into the songs’ core, but also how all the sparse elements come together onto this song.