YYRKOON
I love to be surprised and out of seemingly nowhere, this French release smacked me upside the head. I'd never so much as even heard of this obscure band let alone known that their previous material was considered almost exclusively Black Metal. With Dying Sun, YYRKOON offer up a highly palatable, highly digestible helping of Thrash Metal that borrows from several existing genres such as Power Metal, Death Metal and a glazing of Progressive Metal layered on top. Tasty it is and to think that this band was once a Black Metal outfit truly stumps me because I don't here one sliver of it on Dying Sun.Whatever the motivation behind the band altering their style is irrelevant as far as I am concerned because the end product is so thoroughly enjoyable I could care less. Taking some very traditional and foundational elements out of the Thrash grabbag and molding it with Power Metal melodies, YYRKOON have fashioned some wholesome Metal that harbors vast depth and probes into one musical hierarchy after the next. This goes beyond mere musical construct as even the vocals are extremely varied, reminding me of how fellow Frenchman SCARVE mesh the two extremes in their own music. Both the cleaner singing and the diabolical growls are done to virtual perfection and both find harmony in their perspective appearances on the album. Now let's take the core songwriting, which is what all the hoopla I'm raving about arises out of. On the surface, and at first listen you may mistake this for thrashy Power Metal that dips into Melodic Death Metal pools from time to time. However, what really is happening here is a musical circus of those styles meshed amongst one another with an uncanny balance, as if your listening to the aural equivalent of a fast moving carousel; all its colors blending to form a uniform hue. I want to call this beautiful but I don't want readers to get the wrong impression. This is rough stuff friends, aggressive and wanton but so well orchestrated, so surgical and precise that your senses may well experience the overload of blissful stroking we all long for in an album. To say this album is merely catchy is a cruel understatement. I played this puppy over and over again and I intend to wear it down to a small nub before too long.
Musicianship on Dying Sun is exemplary. Too schooled and creative to have me believing this was once anything approaching symphonic Black Metal. The imaginative applications of guitar leads amongst transitioning riffs and tempos flourish with consistency across the ten tracks on the album. So great is the scope aspired to on Dying Sun I am uncertain as to how the band did not land a larger and more lucrative deal with one of the bigger labels. Surely they deserve it after this blessing. Can you tell I loved it? Special thanks to my contributor John for making this band's presence known to me.
Dying Sun is one of those crafty and nimble albums that we are sure to reflect back on in years to come and revile it for it's immense enjoyment. This puts YYRKOON (whatever that moniker implies) on a map to success should the right label pen them the deal they've earned. I only hope this isn't just a one album wonder. The chemistry here is unrelentingly strong and I personally want to hear more. All this said, you the reader are not only urged to pick this album up, you are ordered to without argument. So says I.....
Matt's rating: 9
John's rating: 6.5
