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AXIA ‘Axia’ MTM Music (2004)
Axia belong to the category of the very talented bands that never managed to
break through, for reasons that no rational human being can explain.
Axia is the brainchild of Peo Pettersson, the band’s vocalist. Formed in
1984, the Swedish quartet (at the time) recorded a four track EP after
plenty of rehearsals in Peo’s Warehouse/Studio. The EP made such a big
impression on the Hard Rock circles that the Swedish branch of Polygram
records decided to offer Axia a contract. Armed with plenty of confidence
(and even more talent), the band entered the studio in 1986 and recorded
their first studio album, which was simply called Axia.
I’ll get right to the point: Axia is a brilliant album with an average
production. It’s not easy to describe Axia’s music and you won’t give them
any credit by choosing to refer to them as just another Hard Rock band. The
band is obviously influenced by giants such as Whitesnake and Deep Purple -
just listen to the great Rock n’ Roll tune of Fire, and Peo’s beautiful
melodic vocals in Never Ending Love and I’m pretty sure that you’ll agree
with me. One of the first songs I got hooked on was Loser, a song with
great guitar work and excellent vocals for Peo, who’s more or less the
driving force behind the band.
Increasing Action is probably the heaviest song of the album, and will remind you a lot of Heaven’s Gate from the
Future World era, with the only difference that the German power Metal
outfit recorded this brilliant album many years after Axia - a thing
definitely worth mentioning! There are no average songs on this fourteen
track album, but I feel the need to choose Forced Into Darkness and
Confession Of Love as my favourite two, with the latter being my CD
player’s best friend for the last couple of days!
Things are very simple: If you like melodic Hard Rock, you need to buy this
album. Once again I feel angry that bands like Axia never got what they
deserved, but I also feel lucky to have discovered them.
****
Review by John Stefanis
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