There are bands that I just don’t understand. For example, the info sheet says that their latest album received many label offers due to “good and confused reviews”. Nevertheless, the following EP “Welcome To Annexia” is released as a self-production whose info sheet says that this CD received good reviews only. If this was supposed to serve as an influence, I would have preferred a bottle of good beer, he he. But to stick to the topic: on the back-side they ask for support, as they are searching for a label, from whom they have received a lot of offers according to the front-side, and the CD has received good reviews only before some magazines have even heard it. So I don’t understand why the back-side of the info sheet was printed by a promotion company.

But as the content is what actually counts, let’s get to the actual topic: the music. Due to complex songs and a lot of variation you can talk about Progressive Death Metal here. I think that the guys tried to achieve too much, though, for often the riffs end in too many time changes and chaos. You do notice a certain originality, but even after several spins the songs are still not catchy and hard to comprehend. What is partially guilty is the keyboard, which partly delivers atmospheric parts, but which causes a lot of confusion on the other hand. Moreover the production is dull and downright thin. Thus neither drums nor guitars nor vocals have the necessary power. Unfortunately aggression can only be found in small bits. Moreover the vocals sound rather bored, maybe this is due to the fact that they are very low, dull and slow, above all.

For all that there are some positive approaches, though I do believe the guys from Berlin to be capable of more than they showed here. Maybe a better production would be quite impressive, but you do realize that something more is missing. Maybe they will improve until their first album, which is supposed to come out next year. Then I would wish that they cut the unnecessary things, though. Because the last song “Farewell Phonecall” consists of strange strumming that neither fits the music nor should it be on this record. (Online December 7, 2005)