AN OTHER LIFE

Hard/symphonic progressive rock band hailing from Massachussets,USA,who have been around since 2001.Focusing on writing lyrics around Christianity,AKACIA produced and released independentaly their first album ''An other life'' in 2003.The album consists of only four tracks,two of them being decent epics of 16 and 22 minutes length respectively.

Their sound is a weird mix of YES-styled symphonic progressive rock with rockin' parts and boogie KANSAS-like grooves.There are lots of good alternating electro-acoustic passages,while sometimes the musicianship tends to be quite complex.I notice the nice keyboard work,going from atmospheric fillers to great WAKEMAN-ish acrobatics,but I find the guitars to be a litlle raw for a work/style like this and the sound oftens tends to be very ''boogie'' or their rough sound spoils the good organ work.Additionally,singer Eric Naylor sounds nothing like Jon Anderson,but after several listenings I think he should try this direction,as his vocal lines sound very amateur and ''American'' or even out of tunes sometimes.

All in all,AKACIA tried to come up with a decent debut,but I count the negatives to be slightly more than the positives of this album.So,2 stars for this debut and a recommendation only to YES-lovers,if the ''boogie/hard'' factor won't spoil their prog taste...