Band:	Altona
Album:	Altona
Style:	Progressive metal
Website:	http://www.altonaband.net
Release date:	2008
A review by:	Jeff

01. Intro
02. Dead One
03. Welcome The Heaven
04. Eternal Depth
05. Field Of Hope
06. Autumn Song
07. Outro

Altona comes from Turkey and plays some kind of oriental Progressive Metal a bit like one other famous band from the country, Mezarkabul. This first album is a good discovery; I really like Progressive Metal and oriental sonorities in music and so really this is something for me. "Altona" is not perfect but we can already hope a lot of good things for this band.

It's not particularly hard to describe the music of Altona. Just imagine oriental and Arabian music, add it to some real Progressive Metal and you'll understand how it can sound. This is really original and fresh; I think that this kind of "folk" music is perfect for Metal, and no need to give one more time the names of the successful combos which use such sonorities. With only seven songs, including a short into and outro, "Altona" is not that long but the five other songs are real little jewel. They're all complex with real progressive structures and always with a powerful bass which gives a real particularity to the music of the Turkish combo. The lead guitar always plays oriental melodies when the other instruments add the progressive touches to the music. The voice of Vahdang Makaletia which really sounds oriental is just exceptional; I can tell you that you'll not be able to hear such kind of voices everyday. Really "Altona" is a great promising first album but it suffers of a really average production unfortunately?

Despite great songs and a superb interpretation of the musicians, the album really suffers of an average production. The sound is a bit too loud and not so clean, it's sad because when you'll discover the music of Altona, you'll probably agree with me to say that such kind of music in reason of its complexity should have a perfect recording. On the other hand this is just a first album and its average sound will not change my first opinion which says that "Altona", has the potential to become famous outside of Turkey.

If you like oriental and Arabian music, if you like real original Progressive Metal I invite you to check as soon as possible the music of Altona. Not sure that you'll be able to find the album easily but I think that they deserve your support at least through their Myspace page. I'm a fan of Mezarkabul and Orphaned Land, I think that now I will also keep an eye on Altona. The first album of Altona is really promising I hope that they will confirm my words in the future.