ANTHEA
“Tales Untold”
Album Review by Iron Mathew

9.5/10

Anthea are a symphonic metal band from the USA formed in 2015, releasing their self titled debut E.P. in 2017, and their first full length album ‘Illusion’, in 2020. The bands sound blends together power, thrash, and symphonic metal elements to create a massive theatrical feel. The new album ‘Tales Untold’ – released in 2022 – has an even bigger sound than its predecessor, projecting a huge cinematic aura onto its listeners.

Featuring ten songs over forty five minutes, the new album storms into life with the title song ‘Tales Untold’ – heavy, and melding traditional metal with power metal. Also, ‘Tales Untold’ (the song) is highly infectious, and as an album opener, will turn heads and make listeners sit up and take notice. For Anthea are back, and doing what they do best! ‘Ascendence’ hits harder than the opening salvo, adopting a much more symphonic metal feel too. The chorus break is anthemic and sing a long-able – perfect for a crowd participation moment during a live performance. The bands debut album was filled with many musical twists and turns, and on the evidence of the opening two songs of the new album, it would seem we’re in for many more! And that would include an array of harsh vocals and death metal growls accompanying the bands usual clean vocal delivery.

Moving in a more melodic direction, ‘Song For Winter’ is a lighter – if there’s such a thing with this band – song, and will appeal to fans of hard rock. Anthea opening up their sound to a very wide audience. Not being able to tour their debut album due to the worldwide pandemic of 2020, the band are champing at the bit to get out on the road – and armed with a second album, I wonder just what the bands set list is gonna be! Harsh vocals take the lead as ‘The Deceiver’ hits hard like a wrecking ball. the vocal growl in stark contrast to the clean vocals that soon take over. ‘The Deceiver’ is a pace changing tempo changing march of heaviness and speed. Intensity and a high level of energy is oozing from ‘Tales Untold’ (the album) – ‘Sapiens’ sounding a tad tribal and Middle Eastern as it begins. Before becoming the heaviest song heard so far – pushing the bands sound in a thrashy direction. And then a little of the bands progressive nature shines through, as ‘Sapiens’ foot stomps, strides and sprints its way to a conclusion. A more mellow and serene atmosphere descends upon the album as ‘Memoriam’ displays all the traits of a impending power ballad. Lighters will be held high to this one, along with arms waving from side to side – Anthea showing a much softer side to their sound.

And almost immediately, the band are hitting hard once again with ‘Looking Glass’. A jack hammer style riffing fills the air, as does the harsh growled vocals. The mix of the two styles keeping listeners on their toes, not knowing which is coming next, the band not following a standard pattern with regards to using two singers – the bands lead singer Diego Valadez for clean vocals, and guitarist Juan Pina for the harsh. The classic sound of NWOBHM styled guitars rises to the surface as ‘Empyrean’ fairly flies out the blocks and gallops on with the familiar “foot on the monitor” feel of traditional heavy metal. Anthea really do run around a few different genres of metal to create their unique and somewhat individual sound. Picking up the pace, thunder, fire and brimstone, ‘Sunder Heart’ races hard from the off, switching to melodic metal across the chorus break. And once more the harsh vocals take lead, but it’s the chorus that’s gonna grab listeners attention – sing a long-able or what! The album is brought to a close with ‘In Time’ – a cover of the Robbie Robb (Tribe After Tribe) song that appears on the soundtrack to the 1989 science fiction comedy Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventure (starring Keanu Reeves, Alex Winter, and George Carlin). Anthea keep to the pace and feel of the original, but beef it up just a little bit so it fits better with the bands sound.

Overall, a thundering, turning, twisting journey of infectious and addictive heavy come power come symphonic metal.

TRACKLIST

Tales Untold
Ascendence
Song For Winter
The Deceiver
Sapiens
Memoriam
Looking Glass
Empyrean
Sunder Heart
In Time

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