I don’t really know what to think of this release. After listening to Meeting In The Mist for the hundredth time, a feeling of duality permeates my mind. One side of my brain seems to like the up-tempo symphonic melodies of this album, while the other side of my brain struggles with the terrible predictability of this release. I mean, in the last couple of months I’ve heard a dozen of this type of albums and foremost in my mind is the latest release of the Italian band (and label compatriot) Secret Sphere. This comparison becomes even more apparent when listening more closely to the vocals. It doesn’t come as a surprise that Alkemyst’s singer Ramon is indeed the same guy as on Secret Sphere’s Scent Of Human Desire. And just like on that album, Ramon’s vocals are slightly lacking, his voice lacks power.

The album itself is really quite decent and displays a mixture of symphonic and power metal with a slight touch of progressive metal. There’s a good balance between melody and power and a good variety of songs; from up-tempo tracks like “Still Alive” to a melancholic ballad like “Hold On To Your Dreams” and even a very epic song named “The Nameless Son”, clearly influenced by Dream Theater.

Yeah, these French guys deliver a very decent debut album, that’s for sure, and if you don’t mind predictability you certainly will like this release.

Meeting In The Mist was mastered in the famous Finnvox studio in Helsinki by Mika Jussila and I must say I’ve heard better sounding releases from that studio. In fact, the sound is too flat and lacks power. Especially the melodic parts suffer and the sound of the snare drum isn’t really to my taste either. Nevertheless, like I mentioned before this is Alkemyst’s debut album and as such it is really quite decent. If this band wants to succeed however they will have to find their own sound as well as improve the vocals. Oh and please get rid of those ridiculous hidden tracks. Here we have yet again a band that lets the listener wait for 10 minutes to burst into a ridiculous song that might be funny once but gets old really quickly. Let alone the tedious 10 minutes of waiting just to hear it.