Arion celebrates its tenth years with a third album.
Entitled Vultures Die Alone, it is the second album of the current line-up of the Finns, composed of Iivo Kaipainen (guitar, ex-Edge of Haze), Gege Velinov (bass), Topias Kupiainen (drums, In Victory, Tuomas Norjanen Project), Arttu Vauhkonen (keyboards) and Lassi Vääränen (vocals, Cønstantine).
The album begins with Out of My Life, an energetic song of which solid rhythmic will make you immediately nod. Vocals oscillate between a ballsy Heavy and a motivating Power, for an extremely effective melting. We continue with Break My Chains, a more melodic and majestic song thanks to those orchestrations, allowing the rhythmic to focus on sharp harmonics, then the band welcomes Noora Louhimo (Battle Beast) for Bloodline, a song that melts the band’s energetic elements with softer parts. Noora’s voice brings this strength the band perfectly exploits and develops before I’m Here To Save You, a composition shaped for the stage. The one and only goal of this track is to federate a crowd with a hopeful message, and I have no doubt for the band’s ability to achieve it. Mandatory moment with the soft and slow Power ballad In the Name of Love as a duo with the finnish Alternative Rock band Cyan Kicks, bringing a touch of softness to the song.
The band goes back into rage and raw effectiveness with A Vulture Dies Alone, a quite heavy and energetic song, that still counts some intense Symphonic elements and powerful vocals to make us get hooked by the band’s sound before the heavy I Love to Be Your Enemy, a darker song. The more it plays, the more it is effective and catchy, offering heaviness and rage before the soft Where the Ocean Greets the Sky. The song is slow, offering the band the opportunity to mesmerize us with some heady tones, seizing leads and some backing vocals. I Don’t Fear You makes rage burn again for a simple but catchy song, that will easily be a nice live song with this easily memorizable but so effective chorus, that finally leads us to Until Eternity Ends, the last song. It is with a second Power ballad that the band closes this album, unveiling after so much rage and energy a more simple and seizing aspect of their universe.
Arion’s name probably means nothing for you. However, Vultures Die Alone is a gamechanger for the band. Effective and seizing compositions, communicative vocals and a melodic rage, here is what to expect!
95/100