Band:	AnachroniA
Album:	The Endless Agony
Style:	Gothic metal, Melodic progressive metal
Release date:	2004
A review by:	wrathchild

01. Lunacy
02. Endless Agony
03. Angels Cry
04. Time' So Long
05. Around My World Part. I
06. Around My World Part. II
07. Lost Time
08. Sailormen
09. Eternity

Let's begin this review with what I usually write at the end of many of my reviews: We'll hear from this band in the future, and I hope the near future. Simply put, their talent is very evident and they can only get better with time.

The Endless Agony is AnachroniA's debut album. While the title may not be very original (and reminds me a lot of the first album of The Old Dead Tree, The Nameless Disease), the music is. Not that they invented something new, but they're combining many aspects of all metal music in a very fluent and attractive way. The term "gothic" is not really the most relevant here, despite the presence of a female vocalist and the obscurity of the album.

We're facing a concept album, with a storyline basically dealing with how insanity is drowning the character to his/her end, revisiting the character's life and mankind's fate.
All along the album you'll run into catchy riffs and choruses, good solos, acoustic passages and sometimes atmospheric and folky parts (like in the introduction of Sailormen), all wisely used and never abused.
The main voice is not operatic but kinda soft and the growling parts are also easy to understand while remaining very effective.
I also like the fact that the two first songs are the longest tracks (around 10 minutes). This really helps in getting into the album, yet it remains hard to pick one song as a favorite since they are all excellent!
And note that there's a hidden outro!

The only things that are not perfect are mostly due to the production. The sound of the guitars could have been more polished (like the clean electric guitar solo on Sailormen). Same applies for the voice but only because I need to find something to justify why I haven't given this album a 10. Nevertheless, when you know that they produced the album themselves, you can't really be picky.

So, if you have been reading this, you know that what you have to do is to click on the link to their website (very nice website by the way), download their 2 available songs (of which one is on our compilation), comment on them, tell your friends about AnachroniA, purchase the album, see them in concert (they now have a deal with the same agency as Epica and many others) and enjoy!