Reviews

It's virtually impossible to find highlights here as this would suggest that there are tracks that are somehow inferior. This is plainly absurd so I won't bother. Suffice to say this will appeal to all fans of rock music whether progressively inclined or not. It is progressive insofar as the verse chorus verse format is eschewed for allowing the songs' themes to develop, but there's no self-indulgent twiddling, and, although dark in places, no risible, hectoring or obscure lyrics. I'm desperately seeking more superlatives here but failing. Let's just say that the sheer brilliance of everything here - songwriting, musicianship, production and, goddamnit, variety, should propel the band into progressive rock greatness. It's already found its way into my top three albums of the year, and that, given the quality of this years' prog releases, is no mean feat. Quite simply - superb.
www.getreadytorock.com/reviews2011/akin.htm

They have taken their love of nu prog and augmented it with their original gothic metal sound and then added some 70's classic prog and 80's new prog to create something totally original, a mix of Renaissance, Camel, Kansas, The Reasoning and The Gathering is the closest I can get without over complicating the matter, I could come up with a list a mile long and still not hit the nail on the head, they are akin to so many but totally distinctive. The result is a work of harmonious contrasts, after all they say that opposites attract, a jazzy liveliness but with a melancholy gothic underbelly; delicate subtlety and driving power; catchy and melodic but with technical musicianship; adventurous, fascinating and absorbing but oh so easy to listen to; acoustic and electronic instrumentation; simplicity and sophistication; light and dark. Adaline with her pure clear voice does an incredible job giving them a touch of the Corrs, she deals perfectly with diminished, augmented and 7ths that would destroy a lesser singer, and the performances from the lads are exemplary, especially Matt Baker's fluid guitar leads, Luc Babut's Jon Camp esque bass work and Romain Fayet's's skilled drumming, all with impeccable production and sound. The string quartet and Philippe Chauvire's flute are an integral part of the sound and not just bolted on as an afterthought. There is a lot of imagination gone into the songs, for example some lovely poetry readings by Tom O'Bedlam (whose readings have had nearly four million hits on Youtube) and the use of some unusual instruments like Indian percussion.
www.ravenheartmusic.com/products-group-95.html

The very start of the album, with a very rich instrumental before the crystal clear female vocals start is one of the best presentations and declarations of intent I’ve heard on a band these last years. Even if the overall musicality of the band shifts between the progressive rock and the progressive metal with some gothic tones, the fact is that this French band (which was unknown to me up to this point) rapidly presents a good portion of their tools to vanquish and get the right recognition that they deserve. A proper first step has already been taken in that direction, by recently signing to ProgRock Records, which will undoubtedly put them on the spotlight…starting right away.... The Way Things End is a specially recommended album for all those who like some weight in their progressive rock, some art in their progressive metal, or all (the many) that like good female vocals in music. This album is a winner.
www.proggnosis.com/PGRelease.asp?RID=34614

Akin has constructed a beautiful piece of eclectic art rock with "The Way Things End", blending art rock and progressive metal in a successful and easy-to-like manner, yet with enough twists and turns to satisfy many who crave music that is of a fairly challenging variety. The tight interaction with a string quartet and its role in the proceedings suggest to me that fans of US act District 97 may be something of a key audience also for Akin, and I would suggest those who enjoy one of those to also take the time and listen to the other, which, presumably, should give both these bands some new fans.
www.progressor.net/review/akin_2011.html

Few bands are versatile enough to incorporate a classical string quartet and a flute into their music with a result that appears effortless to the listener- like it was a foregone conclusion. Akin has done this with great success. The only question we are left asking is, what took them so long? And poetry? Kick me out the fucking door. Not only was it brilliant, his recital was captivating. Akin actutally thought to add a poetry slam right in the middle of a song. That track, Resilience, wouldn’t be as good without those spoken words. These kinds of bold decisions are what separates the best from the rest (I swear I didn’t just steal that off a pizza box).
danteprog.com/2011/10/akins-the-way-things-end-the-way-to-define-brilliance

Adeline's pretty vocals and the tone of the music lend ”The 92nd Flight” a “Renaissance air”, albeit updated,great guitar work that reminds me a bit of Steve Howe. The lyrics lean in a spiritual way, Traveling life's many roads,feeling despair but inside in your heart is speaking to you,guiding you to your home. For me,a pleasant introduction to AKIN.
www.prognaut.com/reviews/akin.html

Mostly the arrangements offer contrasts of lightness and heaviness. The former often comes with female lead Adeline Gurtner's vocals over minimal and light instrumentation. The latter often comes from the rich, sometimes edgy, guitar solos of Matthieu Baker. Sometimes the vocals lead into this broader crescendo. With the string quartet, rather than synthesizers, providing the symphonic atmosphere, there is also a greater sense of authenticity across this album. Largely, Akin's The Way Things End is a diverse and entertaining dish of melodic and symphonic progressive rock. Recommended.
www.dangerdog.com/2011-music-reviews/akin-the-way-things-end-review.php

For fans of melodic yet adventurous, female-fronted progressive rock bands, this album will comfortably sit in your the top ten albums of 2011. From the stunning groove and interplay of opener The 92nd Flight, through the catchy simplicity of Enter Spaceman to the inventive soundscape of Miller's End this is a hugely impressive and entertaining album from start to finish.
www.dprp.net/reviews/201136.php#akin

AKIN surprised me with a highly original mix of progressive rock, melodic metal. pop, jazz and classical music. AKIN has in the person of Adeline Gurtner a great vocal is that is convincing on this wonderful album. “The Way Things End” has a good balance, sounds great and has no weak points. Recommended to the fans of progressive rock with a metal edge.
www.progvisions.nl/reviews_uk/ak_tw_uk.htm#

Initially I was quite impressed and overall I found this to be a pleasant cd, it is one I will certainly revisit from time to time as I find a little more to like each time I listen .To me the weak points are that some songs could have been a bit longer to fully develop the story, as it stands,they felt rushed,also I found the lyrics suffer from being written in another language (French perhaps) and then translated to English,as always in this case,some things get lost in the translation.
www.prognaut.com/reviews/akin.html

Interview with Julien Chometton
www.jerrylucky.com/interviews_044.htm

The Way Things End features a total of fifteen tracks most of which are in the three to five minute range. As one listens it’s quite easy to hear the band’s prog-metal approach although it’s been adapted to a larger musical pallet. The addition of string-quartet certainly goes a long way to “soften” the overall feel even when everyone is “sawing” in unison. Instead it makes for a grander symphonic feel and plays well against the female vocals of Adeline. Her approach is never strained or overly forceful, rather simply delivered with the utmost confidence and warmth. The compositions themselves are well crafted offering up lots of musical variety with guitarists switching from electric to acoustic regularly and keyboards working nicely in the background. These are song-based compositions and yet they will slide through different segments, different feels. The track “Unheated” [3:57] is a good example. Given its short length is manages to change-up three or four times both in terms of musical dynamics as well as time and tempo. It’s quite subtle and very well done.
www.jerrylucky.com/reviews%20a-e_063.htm

Akin are a Progressive Rock/Metal from France. They were originally formed way back in 1998 and released their debut album "Verse" in 2001. Now, a decade later the band has issued their 2nd album, "The Way Things End". With a total track-listing of 15-songs and 1 Hour’s worth of music, Akin certainly more than make up for lost time. "The Way Things End" opens with the excellent "The 92nd Flight". One thing is immediately apparent, these guys and girl are excellent musicians. The thought that comes to mind when you hear ‘Progressive Rock’ are endless songs, with long jams and intricate arrangements. While Akin features strong musicianship their songs are mostly in the 4-6 minutes range. The band also showcases a bit of a classic rock vibe like on "Cassandra" and "Falling Deeper". Other highlights include: the psychedelic "Enter Spaceman", "No Second Ride" and the narrative "Miller’s End". "The Way Things End" is a good sophomore effort after such a long layoff. Having never heard Akin before, I was impressed with their brand of Progressive Rock. Hopefully, this is NOT "The Way Things End", but it’s only the beginning.
www.femmemetal.net/AkinTheWayThingsEndRev.htm

The first thing I noticed and that I think you should know, is that the lineup for this album is pretty impressive, including seven people in the band, plus a string quartet and even more musicians on parts of the album. When I play this album, I notice the high level of production and sound quality, as well as the justification of this number of musicians, layering the songs with intertwining layers of guitars, flute, Cello, violins, viola, keyboards and drums, together forming the colorful, dramatic canvas for the powerful, yet gentle voice of Adeline Gurtner. With their music, her voice travels, sometimes joyfully, sometimes painfully, through the different stories of the album, reminding at times the inevitable Within Temptation, Tristania and Nightwish. Akin, though, sound more serious and able, not confining themselves to a gothic frame of mind, and allowing various exotic music playing and instruments to color their songs with tempting sounds, such as on the song “Miller’s end”, which is one of the best songs in this album in my opinion.
cinyf.wordpress.com/reviews/akin-–-the-way-things-end

Akin, formed back in 1998, a band that has made her debut a long time ago. After a long break of eight years they decided to pick up where they left the thread, and continue where they had stayed. ‘The Way Things End’ is a new beginning and a new challenge. ‘The Way Things End’ has this spiritual and Mediterranean side, influences from the east and west. It shows us electro pop and panpipes together, in the same song. The lyrics are quite diverse, but not as deep and dark as we are used to. It is nice to have something light for a change. The other side of the music is quite heavy, progressive and very up-tempo. With the duration of exactly one hour and twenty-four seconds, I find the album a bit on the long run, yet it does not bother me. It has got the catchy tunes of ABBA, but with the voice that somewhat resembles that of Anneke van Giersbergen. Not a punishment at all to listen to. With a couple of guest musicians, they produced a number of fifteen songs. It is indeed something new, a mixture of so many styles and it actually sounds good.
www.lordsofmetal.nl/showreview.php?id=19243&lang=en

Akin is a Lyon, France - based progressive/metal band that formed back in 1998. They have released two previous albums to critical acclaim in France. The Way Things End might ironically be the way things begin for the global recognition this bands deserves. This album is a superb compilation of unique sounding tracks full of great instrumentation, a string quartet and one of the best female vocalists I've heard this year. Hopefully this album helps get them a contract with a major label. We all need to hear more from this band. The band is made up of, Luc Babut, bass guitar; Matthieu Baker, guitars and backing vocals; Philippe Chauvire, flute; Julien Chometton, rhythm guitar; Romain Fayet, drums; Adeline Gurtner, lead vocals; and Pierre Lucas, on keyboards. They also used the additional accompaniment of a string quartet (from the CNSMD de Lyon) with Elsa Claveria and Rachel Givelet on violin; Samuel Hengebaert on viola; and Florian Nauche on cello. Guillaume Prost provides darbuka on 'The 92nd flight'; Elodie Poidier provides dilruba on 'Miller's End' and additional cello on 'Miller's end', 'The 92nd flight', 'Unhearted', 'Before the Storm' and 'Coma'. Sylvain Gerard provides darbuka and djembe on 'Unhearted', daf on 'Miracles' and tablas on 'Miller's End'. The quality and professionalism on this album can be heard from the opening. The depth of the sound and lyrics and the musical development is a wonderful experience. Every track is excellent and full of emotion and layers of great instrumentation.
www.seaoftranquility.org/reviews.php?op=showcontent&id=10948

The storytelling male voice also give this song the little extra together with great guitars, flute and nice floating keys. Falling Deeper opens with cool vocals and nice choir. A more poppy funky song, but still with some heavy guitars. They also create a very good mood and I am really impressed by this bands work!! Miller`s End opens with a storytelling voice accompanied by drums, bass, keys and great played strings. I also like when the powerful guitars comes in, and the instrument dilruba also gives this song the little extra! Coma opens with some cool bass playing before the song kicks off. A more difficult progressive song, but with a cool melody and the instrumentation throughout in this is just fantastic! No Betrayal opens soft with Adeline`s nice voice. A progressive atmospheric song with a cool melody and this song also changes a lot with soft parts to tougher bits. The flute solo and the guitar solo is delicate! A better End, is the last song, and I don`t have words enough to say how much I like this album, just a fantastic album that you need to check out! 100/100
www.melodichardrocktoday.tk

Despite being labelled as a prog rock band (and rightfully so), much of Akin’s music narrows down to fairly concise songwriting structures. It is in fact largely in the way these songs are presented that gives the band their progressive edge. Although Akin’s songwriting aims to be highly melodic, there are dense layers of crunchy guitar riffs and lush string arrangements that add so much to the sound. Although the core songwriting may not tend to be so challenging, the wealth of little details that Akin leaves in the performance and mix is worth returning back to many times, as ‘The Way Things End’ is certainly not a record that is so easily digested in a couple of listens.
www.prog-sphere.com/2011/06/22/akin-the-way-things-end