Alogia – Semendria

Elevate Records release: 15.5.2020

Well, this Serbian band, founded by brothers Miroslav and Srdjan Brankovic, has been around for 20 years, hence it’s clear that those guys are skilled instrumentalists and song writers. When listening to this album, Hammerfall, Helloween, Stratovarius or even Rainbow come to mind. Which means, if you like these bands, you simply have to listen to Alogia. And indeed, every single track is ear candy and there’s this great singer Nikola Mijic with this beautiful voice, sometimes sounding like Bruce Dickinson (e.g. Beyond Belief). This anniversary album provides a novity, because the lyrics are in English, for the first time (and there’s a bit of Italian an Latin too) – this band has kept all their previous outputs in Serbian language. Another bonus are guest vocalists like Tim Ripper Owens, Mark Boals and Fabio Lione. That alone should say it all …

The ear candy styles range from up-tempo Symphonic/Power Metal to slow songs that could be classified as Pop-Rock. There are some classical music influences in guitar soli or played on grand piano. And what is really elevating this band from average are those Ethno-Folk-Kletzmer parts put into the mix, either in terms of instruments (flute, violin), rhythms, tunes or vocal lines. Plus there is also some Prog, Boogie and Jazz. This Ethno touch, however, could have been much more extensive in my opinion – because this is simply brilliant and makes Alogia truly unique. Just listen to “Visantia”, the instrumental “From East to West” or the title track “Semendria”. Therefore I am a bit frustrated that they rather “played it safe” with some other songs instead of using their true strenght, their effortlessly intoxicating mix of styles… otherwise it would not just be a great but a sensationally brilliant album.

Bandwebsites
https://www.facebook.com/pg/alogia.official/

Alogia

Tracklist:
01 SEMENDRIA Featuring MARK BOALS
02 THE ETERNAL   Featuring TIM “RIPPER” OWENS
03 RAISE YOUR FIST (FOR METAL UNITY)
04 LIKE A FIRE
05 CAN’T BRING YOU DOWN
06 THE CALLING
07 VISANTIA  Featuring FABIO LIONE
08 BEYOND BELIEF
09 FROM EAST TO WEST