MUSIC REVIEW: Acanthus - “Pay for Impressions”
This is a paid impression
In recent days, a few fresh acts have reached out to me for reviews, bringing my attention to some otherwise completely new names. The first of these was Acanthus, who I believe found me via my Auri coverage. Great fans of classic Nightwish, they reached out and presented me with their debut album, “Pay for Impressions.” If there’s ever a pitch to prickle my critical ears, it relates to how much of an influence Nightwish has been, because let’s face it — they’re legends in their genre and most of their bairns don’t hold a torch to them, in my admittedly bloated personal opinion. And, on a personal note, Nightwish are one of the few bands I still make a point to actively cover because their music has never let me down in any great way. All this taken into consideration, I was enthusiastic to give this fresh album by Acanthus a try. And you can too—the full album is out now!
Cover art by AronVisuals
So, Who’ve We Got Here?
Foremost, I always want to shout-out a good first impression. In the decade of being begged for coverage, you’d be amazed at how few artists or press releases do it with any degree of class or humility. So I’m very happy to say that when Acanthus reached out, they were really authentic and human in the way they interacted with me — they weren’t hyping themselves up as the Next Big Thing™, nor were they being overly meek about it. Rather, the album was presented as a genuine passion project for which they wanted genuine feedback. I got the sincere vibe that I was dealing with artists who were vulnerably looking to find out if they’re on the right track, and I respect the hell out of that. Also? Love the band name. Love it.
Acanthus is comprised of a traditional heavy metal fivesome, made up of:
Vocalist Lilli Janz
Keyboardist/songwriter Alexander Thiel
Guitarist Joseph Reck
Bassist Markus Baur
Drummer Simon Breier
You can read their bios with some fun facts here on their website.
Their look and style are both classy. The promotional photos on their website are very nice, showing their willingness to put in the work to look good and be seen as professional. I also liked their overall style, as the stone setting fits the atmosphere of their music, and the uniform stylish black shirts on the men look great. Vocalist Lilli Janz has a great outfit that, once again, suits the musical style without looking remotely exploitative.
Sound-wise, if I were to recommend Acanthus to music-lovers out there, I’d suggest at least that fans of Nightwish, Epica, Xandria, and other bands like that give them a chance, and I’d wager if you like the bold theatrical nature of Lost in Grey, these guys might definitely be up your alley. Naturally, if you’re attracted to symphonic power metal or female vocalists in general, definitely give Acanthus the opportunity to impress you.
The Album Itself
The first song, “From the Bottom,” opens on a really strong intro, with really captivating piano melodies, before it punches up the drama by adding symphonics into the mix. There’s a bit of a see-saw back and forth from stripped-down focus on the vocalist and full orchestral bombast, which feels in-keeping more with classical music than metal.
“Human Reign” has an intense opening riff that invokes some of Dream Theater’s crazier material and introduces growls into the mix for the first time. I am a little iffy on the vocal lines in the verses—they suit what’s being done overall, but I’m not sure how I feel about keeping a soprano in a low droning sound. Also… I feel like I’ve heard this vocal line before somewhere? The use of guitars and symphonic drama works really nicely in this one, as does the final punch-up.
“Fall for the Ink” has more moments where Lilli has someone growling alongside her, and I find this to be an interesting use of ‘beauty and the beast’ vocals, because the male voice shifts between growls and cleans… the growls have a near-shouty quality that hovers between a melodeath growl and a thrashier shout, and the cleans have a pleasing roughness around the edges that doesn’t cross into “ugh, learn how to growl already” territory (see older Lacuna Coil for reference). This one also has strong use of the soprano vocals, really well integrated into the metal sound—definitely an album highlight for me.
We enter moody ballad territory with “Letter to the Mist,” without getting too saccharine or wishy-washy. There’s a strong sense of drama and feeling, and while there’s not a huge emotional hook lyrically, I’ll take a song with heart over something that’s pandering any day.
“The Archaeologist” has a rhythm that takes the notes up and down a lot, and Lilli gets to explore her deeper tones a bit more, and it works really well in this track, making it quite lively, yet rather dark. This is the one track that reminds me of something that’s not Nightwish, but again, I can’t put my finger on exactly what it is, which is good… familiar but not too much so. Also, the moment where the instruments ease off and Lilli has a moment that’s almost just her is a classy touch, and I like the instrumental part that sounds like a creepy toy shop with little bass notes sneaking in.
There’s a lot of punchy push and pull in “Jiyan,” which is the Kurdish word for “life.” I’m not sure what it means in context of this song, but it’s a very dramatic piece that travels through a lot of atmospheres, including parts that focus on the male vocalist. There’s also some nice soloing toward the end.
On a funny note? I feel like “Bamborderlined” sounds exactly like you’d imagine it to, taking the band’s sound and that name into account. Bold take on the vocals, and I appreciate it, as well as the drums not overwhelming the sound in the thrashy bits—tastefully done. Quirky song, and I sort of dig it, though I’ve yet to decide if it should have just stopped where the ending fakes out or if the extended part was worth keeping. The female backing vocals work well and overall, this is an ambitious track, but I think they pulled it off and I like it! By the way, is that a hint of the Super Mario theme? You absolute geeks… I love it!
We return to ballad-lands for “Cemetery Hills,” which is led by soft operatic vocals. This one manages to pull off some slight Hans Zimmer feel, as I feel like there’s a hint of the themes from The Lion King in there that don’t last long enough to feel derivative, but invoke a really nice feeling. The vocals could benefit from some dressing up, just so it doesn’t feel like Lilli doing long, drawn-out notes for too long. That said, again, a pretty strong ballad all around.
There’s an interesting, and may I say unexpected intro to “What We Have Become,” almost chiptune-y in sound, though I doubt that’s what was specifically used, and really oldschool Nightwish-style operatic vocal additions before the song punches up in energy… really fun riffing there! Especially noteworthy in this song are little electronic additions that add some fun texture and flavor to the mix. The shared vocals and trade-offs work really well, and there’s a feel that this song is building up to a climax in the album overall. This is another album highlight for me!
“Response” is a punchier, straightforward metal song, which works nicely with the synth sound, but could use a little extra oomph in the vocals, though I do like the way the grunts back up the main vocals in the verses. There’s once again a deeper part that invokes some older Nightwish, though I’m not actually sure if it’s bringing to mind something from “Imaginaerum” and not the Tarja Turunen-era. There’s definitely a lot of Holopainen flare in this one, but I don’t dislike that, because I am obviously a fan of his work. Plus I really love the whispered male vocals that lurk in this track—they really add a lot of mystique.
The final track, “The Death of the Fox,” is a 14-minute epic and manages to earn that name. This is actually a really solid track that wouldn’t feel out of place on Nightwish’s “Once” album, boasting solid vocals, excellent dramatic ebb and flow, and an overall memorable vibe that reaches out when you’re not paying attention and says, “psst, listen to me, I’m interesting.” It feels neither overly long nor bloated. It’s pretty gutsy to do a 14-minute epic on your first album, so I hope these guys are proud of themselves for doing a bang-up job of it!
What Was Solid
First of all, the production pleased me overall (listening to iTunes files on my fairly old Asus laptop), because it sounded clear and well-balanced, without having that notorious Swedish over-polish that so many bands have these days that’s starting to make bands sound homogenous (looking at you, Amorphis). It again shows an understanding of quality without overshooting itself or trying too hard to copy some other band’s production sound.
Technical execution seems pretty solid across the board. No one’s out of tune or doing anything notably weird or out of place. The music seems cohesive and well-thought-through, and it doesn’t follow any patterns that jump out aggressively at me that remind me of any specific band, beyond that it’s clear who some of their biggest influences are, namely Nightwish. I appreciate the humility of sound, as restraint shows potential and taste more than trying too hard or trying everything and seeing what sticks. I’ll return to that in a moment, though.
The lyrics, overall, are also strong! We have nothing so amusingly cringey as “Nymphomatic Fantasia” (fun song that it is), though there are a few small English foibles in there. Nothing on the level of “when lightning stroke me” at least, but more in the small prepositions—tricky things to nail if you’re not a native speaker.
On the whole, I think this is a really solid album and a pretty fantastic debut release!
What to Work On
The first one’s simple: you can really tell it’s a debut album because there’s a focus on technical precision that shows something I love to see, which is the vulnerability of putting yourself out there and testing the waters with something you put a lot of yourself into. What that translates to is a really nice technical execution with notable emotional restraint. It’s like they want to go all-in, but they’re making sure they’re good first. That’s actually not really something to work on, per se, I just assume they’re going to get progressively better as they gain more general experience and thus confidence. To give a more specific example of what that means though, I hope to see a bit more playfulness… I want to hear Lilli’s smile while she’s singing.
There are quite a few places where they’re playing it safe a bit, and it comes through. So with that in mind… I’m a Nightwish apologist and I believe that poets are nothing without a bit of drama. So if any of you artists out there also admire the work of Tuomas Holopainen, I have to assume you’ve got a little flare for drama yourself… dip into it and play around. I’ll dare to assume that you also know the (often unjustified) criticisms, so you can experiment with what you think is a reasonable amount of melodrama to give some good flavor to your sound. Treat music like a playground, and go have some fun.
The other tricky part of making this sort of music is getting the operatic vocals to blend cohesively into the overall heavy metal sound. This is a bit finicky in songs like “Human Reign,” but I could be a bit pickier on this end, because I struggle to enjoy the harsher metals when paired with operatic vocals in general and that doesn’t seem to be an issue for everyone, so take me with a grain of salt (see “Planet Hell” by Nightwish).
All-in-All
As I mentioned briefly before, the most surefire way to get me to be skeptical about your band is to tell me you’re hugely influenced by Nightwish, but feel free to color me quite pleasantly surprised by this debut release from Acanthus. I feel like these guys genuinely put together a solid package across the board, from music and production to visuals, cover, and outfits. There’s no song that offends my ears, while a few of these made it onto my best of 2025 playlist! So, as I mentioned before, if you like Nightwish and maybe are a little wistful for the olden days, I’ll absolutely recommend you check out “Pay for Impressions” by Acanthus! Here’s hoping they’re able to make their way over to Finland one of these days—I’d like to see what they can do live, IRL. For now, keep up the good work and I can’t wait to hear what they come up with next!
Tracklist
From the Bottom
Human Reign
Fall for the Ink
Letter to the Mist
The Archaeologist
Jiyan
Bamborderlined
Cemetery Hills
What We Have Become
Response
Death of a Fox
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