Albums of Purgatory interview Akin

Firstly, whats the band up to right now?

We've just recorded a new MCD called "Forecast", featuring 3 new songs, a moonspell cover ("opium"), and 2 re-arranged songs of our first album ("Verse") + a multimedia track including a live video and artwork. It will be available in June. This summer we're gonna work on our second album, and prepare some gigs for september.

How would you describe the Akin sound?

Akin's music is a mix of lots of diferent styles from pop music to death metal: it's rather hard to describe, you'd better check out these mp3's: http://membres.lycos.fr/akin/lenore.mp3 and http://membres.lycos.fr/akin/flight.mp3 . We use diferent kinds of instruments such as the flute and the percussion, that once added to electric guitar get a particular sound...

How did you get involved with the band?

I created the band in 1998 with friends of mine. In the beginning it was a cover band (Ozzy, Moonspell, Anathema, Metallica...)! Through years, we've added some new members and begun to compose our own songs. That's the way it goes!

>Can you remember your first gig (how did it go)?

Yes I can! We opened for Within Temptation in Toulon, we were scared to death, but the audience was really cool with us, they supported us from the beginning to the end of the show. Backstage, the guys of Within temptation were very nice too: one of my best souvenirs!

>Are you involved in any other projects and if so how do they compare to
>Akin?

No, I'm juste involved with Akin. It takes all my free time, you know?

>What are your favourite Akin tracks?

Sincerely I love all of them, I'm really proud of each one of our songs. Perhaps I have a preference for "Lenore" since it's the song we recorded bestly up to now.

>What are your favourite all time songs?

Mmmmmmmmm..... I'd say Pink Floyd's "High Hopes"

>What the first record you ever bought?

ACDC: fly on the wall! It was in promotion...

>Which album was it that got you into metal and can you explain why?

Iron Maiden's Iron Maiden! My grand brother had the complete Maiden's discography, and when I wanted to discover what the metal music dealt about, I began with the beginning!

>What would be your dream band line-up?

John Petrucci and Matt (our lead guitarist) at the guitars, Steve Harris at the Bass guitar, Eric Adams at the vocals, Mike portnoy at the drums. I love them all!

>If you could do a cover for a tribute album to any band, which song of which
>band would you pick and why?

I would pick any song from "seventh son of a seventh son" (Iron maiden) because they're the greatest of all time and because this album it the best in my opinion.

>What do you think of the position of metal and music in general today?

The influence of metal music is increasing nowadays, wich is good, but on the other hand we can see that the mighty Market is contaminating it more and more. Unfortunately there are few real artists left...

>Which other bands stand out for you at the moment?

Opeth, The gathering and Anathema are my favorites!

>Do you have any funny stories about the band you can share with us?

I'm sorry we're really boring guys...There are funny stories indeed, but I can't share it with you, it's too shamefull!

>and finally, what do you see in the future for Akin?

Recording good albums every year or every two years for decades and decades would be a dream for us! I hope we'll keep on having such opportunities.

>Thanks again for the interview and good luck for the future.

Thank YOU!