The Demo Review:
Among The Mist There are currently 1 Reviews of this Demo.
Average Rating: 4
Band Name: Among The Mist
Demo Title: The Call Of Ares
Band Members: Jaime Ribolleda (vocals), Eugenio Serrano (bass), Aleix Dorca (drums), Albert Dorca (guitar)
Location: Andorra (a small country located in the Pyrenees Mountains between France and Spain).
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    • Musashi's Review:
    Unbelievable! Now I need a fucking atlas to review demos! Since I know you are curious and I want to get better at Jeopardy, here is some important information about Andorra. Andorra is the name of the country and Andorra la Vella is the capital. Andorra's total area is 174 sq. miles. Sweden is literally one thousand times bigger. Andorra is 2.5 times the size of Washington D.C. The population is 64,716. The official language is Catalan. Andorrans are virtually all Roman Catholic. Their national holiday is "Mare de Deu de Meritxell" on September 8. The Andorran economy is fueled by raising sheep and smuggling goods between France and Spain. Now don't say you didn't learn anything from Musashi!

    Next time you meet someone from Andorra, any other foreign country or West Virginia, be sure to speak loud and slow so that they understand you. Seriously, I'm always amused to get demos from foreign countries because it makes me feel cosmopolitan and I always love to read their bios. Here is a choice quote from ATM's bio: "After this fact their popularity raised like soap in Andorra and their aparances in Media became frequent." I don't know what that means, but I can't stop laughing.

    By now you are wondering what Andorran Melodic Power Metal sounds like. It's probably what you would expect. The Call Of Ares begins with "Valencourt," a medieval sounding instrumental. This is a bad start for this demo. It is too long and boring and out of tune to make a good first impression. I like the tune itself and it would be good filler for an album or good intro music before they take the stage. However, they need to rerecord the song and fix the tuning problems. Oh wait. I see that there is a reprise at the end called "Valencourt (A Legend's Tale)". This time it has the spoken lyrics overdubbed over the exact same track. Tricky. The singer's suave voice sounds like Antonio Banderas on this track. Very moody. Like I was saying, redo this track for the album. It doesn't belong on this demo. The five other songs are much better.

    The title track reminds me of Iron Maiden. I'm pretty sure the vocals are in English but are hard to understand. The production and mix are both good especially for a demo. Now these guys are showing that they can rock.

    The third track, "The Battle of the Last Sigh" is an another Maidenesque epic. The fourth track "Desolation" is more avant garde or prog like Queensryche. However, the mix starts to suffer as ATM starts using more double bass drums. Suddenly it becomes apparent that they did not have enough reverb effects to put all the instruments through them. The drums are in your face and the guitars are washed in the background with the vocals. Here is a mixing tip: try to get it to sound like the band is all in the same room.

    Actually, I'm surprised that other than the Valencourt fiasco, the rest of the songs are all good. I like this demo. Among The Mist display strong musical sensibilities while maintaining a metal edge. ATM have a heavy, old-school metal sound. The guitars are strong and have lots of interesting melody parts and harmonies. At times the guitars almost sound like Thin Lizzy. (Hey!!! That's a good thing!!!) Anyway, the tenor vocals are strong and full of machismo (if somewhat unintelligible). When all is said and done, I like good songs. ATM write good songs. I like them. They sound... Europeanish. I am still amazed that there is this band in a country that I've never heard of that can play metal music while tending to their flock. Hopefully, some record label will smuggle them out of the Pyrenees to civilization.

    P.S. - Get a website!!!
    4 out of 5

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