Don't let the pretty picture of the fairy on the front cover deceive you. Akira Dawn are no pretty, sweet and innocent little band. They are, and this is understating it, very, very loud.

The clue is in the title of the E.P. and its first track. No band seriously concerned with fairies at the bottom of the garden would associate itself with a title like How to take Bullets. Akira Dawn, on the other hand, do.

Is this the real life.....

In 1997, Radiohead released a single called "Karma Police". It was heralded in some quarters as a prog rock answer to Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody". Now we have a heavy metal version of the legendary Glam Rock song in the form of Akira Dawn's "How to Take Bullets".

It is, and this is putting it mildly, excessively loud. Listeners of a nervous disposition may like to, well, not bother. The track begins with a manic hammering on every single drum and symbol the drummer can get his hands on, before the lead singer belches "Give me a reason why" into the microphone.

A Hell of a noise:

In places it seems to be a duet between guitar and vocalist. A roar from the singer followed by a 50 billion miles an hour guitar solo and then a return to the sound of the voice that may well be coming to us directly from the pits of Hell.

At around the two minute mark, assuming you have survived this far, Akira Dawn get interesting. It is here that they prove themselves. They are not just a noisy band. They can put a tune together too.

Reduce Your Speed!

Following a wave of fierce guitar playing, the pace slows as chords are gently plucked and a new tune appears over head. Gradually, this too speeds up, but the welcome change of pace gives an extra edge to the track as a whole.

There's another change of pace a minute or so later. A new riff appears that could well be the head banging moment. The preceeding lyrics may not have been "Beelzebub has a devil put aside for me, for me, for me", but what follows is just as worthy of the "Head banging" label.

The Strange Case of Dr. Akira and Mr. Dawn

Second track "Mindfire 2" demonstrates something of a Jekyll and Hyde mentality. Half of it is sung by a singer with a tuneful voice, while the other half is reserved for the other vocalist ("singing" is probably the wrong word for it), a verbal volcano of rage and bile.

Taking it in turns to sing (or not) they take us on a high octane roller coaster ride of white noise.

Meltdown:

After a couple of minutes of different tunes and snatches of lyrics, the song slowly descends into madness. All the tunes and ideas get mashed together into a speeding frenzy of anger and rage before burning out before us.

A final sputter of anger appears, before the track sinks back into itself and the Dr. Jekyll of the band sings out "Cried out my name".

The Art of Noise:

Akira Dawn have produced a couple of metallic symphonies with many different moods and textures. It may not be to everyone's liking, but along with The Penance and Amnesia Valley, Akira Dawn look like they have what it takes to produce some very intelligent and very loud music.

15/04/04 - First published on www.bbc.co.uk/gloucestershire under this link