Kryophere – Hireath

This Cardiff-based and strangely monikered act delivers an ambitious and eclectic debut album, throwing elements of death, industrial, thrash and even nu-metal into a framework that for the most part fits the deathcore standards, however the end result seems a bit more confused than it does inventive.

The effort to make their growls and screams heard above all the countless others in the current metal scene is admirable, yet throughout 10 tracks, the Welsh seven-piece (yes there’s seven of them) don’t seem to do much more than blend in a couple of quirky and sometimes obnoxious arrangements with some deathcore that cross the border into banality.

Album opener “Assume the Position” is a stunning example of such mundane songwriting, offering some mechanical and chugging riffs that Dino Cazares would have taken 5 seconds to write, a slew of relentless blatbeats, the usual breakdowns, some symphonic keys and loads of guttural screams. This is followed by “Generation Seven”, a rather unusual song that merges some technical death-metal with carnival-esque sounds and features the contribution of an apathetic and semi-operatic female singer. Then there’s the most obnoxious theme of the whole album “Serious Fun”, which sounds like The Black Dahlia Murder jumping the Linkin Park bandwagon. Sounds awful doesn’t it? Well wait until you actually hear it.

Usually, I'm all up for originality, yet all this mish-mash of ideas really alienates listeners rather than capture their attention, actually doing Kryophere more bad than any god. (4/10)

David Alexandre

Band info: www.myspace.com/kryophere

Label info: www.hangout.altsounds.com

For fans of: Viatrophy, Ignominious Incarceration, And Hell Followed With