Akribi – Black Morning Sun (2011)

The overall sound here certainly reminds of Dream Theater, particularly their early work. The musicianship is extremely impressive, as is required if you want to match DT. The keyboards in particular are fantastic and vary quite a bit, from more traditional keyboard sounds, to more of piano style, and some really strange sounds on "Where the Water Meets the Sky" that really make that song special.

I usually don't care too much for keyboards (even with DT I occasionally find them annoying), but on this album they are amazing. The guitarist also does a very impressive job, as does everyone else. And as you'd expect, there are tons of great solos and several extended instrumental sections (including an entire instrumental track in "Blue Clay"), and these sections manage to be extremely technical without ever becoming boring or feeling like they drag on, probably because the band is so good at what they do.

For all the technical prowess the band displays, they do have some very strong songwriting, though the first minute of "Puppies of War" could immediately turn people off, as the band goes into full Progressive mode right from the start, beginning the with a crazy stop and start sequence. But once things calm down the song is actually quite straightforward, which could be said for some of the others as well. Actually, in the middle of my second listen I discovered I already had parts of "Surface", "Angel Kiss" and "The Plains of Nevermore" stuck in my head, so that's a very good thing for this type of album.

Speaking of which, those last two I mentioned are the ballads, and they definitely sound like they would work well in a broadway musical. Yes, they are somewhat cheesy, but being a fan of cheesy ballads I think both of those songs are fantastic, and Jessica certainly does an excellent job with the softer vocals, as opposed to her usually more powerful style, which is also fantastic.

And that finally brings me to the highlight of the album. "The Sum of it All" has quite the dark tone to it, and this works very well. The instrumental sections are strong as always, but the chorus is where things really pick up: Jessica is particularly animated there, with her voice sounding even more powerful than usual, and it could possibly annoy some people, but she is most definitely hitting the right notes, and does a fantastic job as always. She even has to hold one note for around 2o seconds, and does that perfectly. Overall it's my favorite song on the album, with "Angel Kiss" and the ultra epic "Carry the Rain" being close behind. The title track is a less cheesy ballad as compared to the other two, and while it's my least favorite on the album, it's still very good, and closes the album nicely.