Band:	Amethys
Album:	Amethee
Style:	Power metal
Release date:	2007
A review by:	Jeff

01. Silver Trip / Ouverture
02. Black Minds / The Slaves
03. Yellow Ways / March Of The Slaves
04. White Wishes / Whispers
05. Purple Hope / Asmethee
06. Grey Stones / I, Melios
07. Red Island / Rise Of The Volcano
08. Deep Blue / Rage Of The Seas
09. Green Rain / The End Of Pain
10. Pink Water / Asmethee (Part II)
11. Rainbow Lights / Even If The Evil
12. Golden Age / The New Order
13. Transparency / The Final Release

"Asmethee" is the second album of the French combo from Bordeaux (France), Amethys. This album took a radical new direction since that the band decided to engage a female vocalist as a 2nd singer to replace the choirs that we had on the first album and since that the band wrote all the lyrics of the album in English. But still, Amethys plays the same kind of music, a mix of symphonic Power with some little touches of progressive music and well it's not so bad actually.

"Asmethee" is a concept album. The story begins when a girl decides to buy a book to have something to do for her traveling in Train. During her trip, she will learn a lot of things about Asmethee, Melios and Anesis, the three main characters of this fantasy story. Don't you think that it's a good way to begin an album? I think so and I like the fact that Amethys worked a lot on this album with the lyrics of course but also with the music. Because the music of "Asmethee" is really complex and deep with a lot of arrangements breaks, keyboards lines and many other things. It's not so easy of access on a side even if it's Power Metal first and I think that you'll have to listen to the album a lot of time before that you can "understand" it. But it's a good symphonic Power with two good singers and the little touches of "Progressive" Metal that you'll hear there and there give something else to the general "fantasy" ambiance that you can find on the album.

However all is not perfect. First the production is a bit average. I'm not talking about the booklet (and cover) which is really beautiful and well done, but about the sound. Actually, the mixing is not perfect and sometime the rhythmic (bass, rhythm guitar etc) is a bit too weak unfortunately. Also, the singers both have a little French accent that they will have to remove in the future but well it was the risk to sing in English so we cannot blame them a lot. Finally, the songs can be a bit "long" sometime. I mean that even if it's good in general, some songs aren't so catchy and can become a bit boring with time but I think too that this problem comes from the fact that the albums is really complex so it's also a matter of "understanding" in my opinion. It will be ok for some of you and not for some others?

"Asmethee" is not a bad album, at the opposite Amethys composed a nice piece of music. Try to listen to the album first to see if it can be for you and if you enjoy the firs songs then don't worry you'll not regret your buying. Personally, I will keep an eye on this combo to see if they will confirm all their potential on their next releases.