22 November 2023
Axxis is a top notch melodic heavy metal band from Dortmund, Germany. Founded in 1988 under the leadership of Bernhard Weiss, the band has been playing music with Bernhard and his bandmates for years. “Kingdom of the Night” is the band’s first and at the same time most famous album.
According to the information on internet, Kingdom Of The Night is the best selling hard rock debut album of all time in Germany. Personally, I prefer to describe the band’s music as melodic heavy metal.
The most characteristic feature of the album, or rather the band, is Bernhard’s unique vocals. He is a great vocalist with a voice unlike any of his peers. It must be because he wrote all the compositions together with guitarist Walter and vocal melodies that suit the music very well. It’s a radio friendly album because of the clean vocals and the relatively lightweight musical hardness compared to their peers. This is a very important factor in the commercial success of the album.
I bought the album in cassette format at an unrelated shopping mall at a time when I was searching left and right for new music. Therefore, in those days when I turned my nose up at the cassette and looked at the CD as a miracle of technology, I actually listened to this beautiful work in analog recording.
Axxis, like many others, made a great first album and tried to continue for years without being crushed by that success. Unfortunately, these efforts don’t seem to have paid off.
The album starts off with Living In A World and ends with Kings Made Of Steel, which is a high tempo track. There are so many good compositions that you never get bored for a moment. The album includes the touching ballad Tears Of The Trees with Bernhard’s beautiful vocals, Kingdom Of The Night with its catchy chorus, Young Souls with its fun structure and The Moon with its majestic structure.
It’s a very good album where you can find answers to your questions like how to write a vocal melody and how to compose a good song. If you’ve met Axxis recently, forget everything you’ve heard. There is really good music here.
9,5/10
