Alogia - Elegia Balcanica

I’ve been a geek for a long time since I was born. Gamer, Real Good Music Lover, and Comic Book geek, you name it. Never fitting with the cool crowd or anything like that, but being that I am and no stop sign for me, admiring real good music has always been my cup of coffee. From the realms of Progressive Rock, the genres of Metal in the sounds of Power, Symphonic, Prog, and Doom, the Metal genre has always been there for me when I was a little kid since hearing bands like Faith No More, Megadeth, and early Metallica to name a few.

And then, there was this amazing band that just completely took me by surprise this year. A group from Serbia that are in the realms of the Power Metal genre named Alogia and their new album released last year in which this is their fifth album entitled, Elegia Balcanica, it was like something knocked me on the edge of my seat and raised my eyebrows from start to finish.

The band formed 15 years ago by brothers Miroslav and Srdjan Brankovic on guitars and consists of Nikola Mijic on Lead Vocals, Vladimir Ranisavljevic on Bass, and Srdjan Golubica on Drums. Alogia opened for bands such as; Whitesnake, Apocalyptia, Paul Di Anno, original singer of Iron Maiden, and Savatage. They have released now five albums albums, which includes a Live DVD/CD performance ten years ago in Belgrade at the Studentski Kulturni Centar (SKC).

But their fourth album is a combination of Speed, Power, Classical, Orchestral, and intense roaring through the streets thanks to the duo guitar sounds of the Brankovic brothers as they pay tribute to the sounds of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal bands like Iron Maiden, Yngwie Malmsteen, Judas Priest, followed by Luca Turilli’s Rhapsody. They have a driven force and the Balkan atmosphere to fit the vibe that makes it a dependable gem. Almost going about 600 miles per hour throughout the beats and Nikola’s voice resembles Bruce Dickinson and James LaBrie, he can hit those notes at the ranges the instruments takes him to where he goes.

On Elegia Balcanica, it features some amazing riffs and interaction between the band members taking into greater achievements and not to mention Srdjan’s drumming setting up the tempos on his kit to go into overdrive throughout his patterns and Vladimir’s Bass going into some punching modes on the lines he delivers. This is my sixth time listening to their album and my introduction to the world of Alogia, and throughout the nine compositions including a bonus track (Intentionally Blind) featuring Silent Kingdom's singer Amir Hadzic, in which they pay tribute to the late Chuck Schuldiner of Death.

Alogia are for me, going to be one of my favorite bands in the Power and Progressive Metal genre and they have taken it up a notch. So if you epic sounds and sing-along anthem’s, Alogia is the band worth checking out and Elegia Balcanica is the album highly recommend.