Morning Metal: Viathyn’s Cynosure Album Review
Viathyn, a four-piece progressive power metal band from Calgary, Canada will be releasing their follow-up to 2010’s The Peregine Way on October 7th, 2014, entitled Cynosure.
I came across this band thanks to the incredible Jon Asher from Asher Media Relations a few days ago, and popped Cynosure into the car while cruising around. I had no idea what this band would sound like, where they were from or any idea they even existed up until that point – to which I feel pretty guilty. Thankfully Jon knows how to pick them and our musical tastes are extremely close.
Listening to the first track, “Ageless Stranger”, reminded me of old school Ensiferum. Fast paced, soaring vocals and ripping solos, it pretty much set the album in stone for me in terms of raw “badass-ness”. I could only hope the rest of the album would be as monstrous as this first track.
Stream “Ageless Stranger” on Youtube here!
Second on the album is “The Coachman”, which was released a few weeks ago. Hands down, my favorite song on this album. I always love a band that has a story-line within the song, and even from the start the lyrics are superb. Vocalist Tomislav Crnkovic has one of the smoothest and grooviest melodic lines I have heard from a Canadian band, he’s got the highs that can scare a cat – and he’s got a metal as fuck name.
One key point that I really like about these guys is they didn’t just spew out 10 tracks that are two minutes long. Each song has an average run time of about seven minutes, which by bands nowadays – is ridiculous. Keep in mind, even when bands write longer songs it tends to tread off and never return to the original idea. Viathyn executes each song perfectly, on game and completely in your face. The production quality on this album is excellent, which I believe was done at Perfect Fifth Studios – one of Calgary’s premier metal recording studios.
“Edward Mordrake” – named after the dude from the 1900’s who had “Voldemort Syndrome”, as I like to call it. He essentially had a face on the back of his head, and would whisper evil things to him. Needless to say, that’s perfect metal songwriting territory. “I still hear voices inside” according to front man Tomislav, who does an absolutely killer job on this track. This song features a really intense solo from lead guitarist Jacob Wright, just shredding the sweet holy Hell out of that guitar neck. I really hope that guitar was 18, because damn.
I also have to point out that the interlude-bridge almost put me to sleep with how creamy (is that weird to say?) it is. Smooth sailing after that bitchin’ solo that eventually builds itself back up before another shredinating solo.
“Shadows In Our Wake” is more up my alley in terms of what metal I listen to, because Viathyn is awesome – but I rarely listen to power metal. It sucks on my part because I would find bands like this that completely blow my mind. Dual harmonies, chugging riffs and heavy as hell structuring. Of course, it has the power metal influence for the majority of the song but drifts into my territory for the last minute and a half.
BASS SOLOS! BASS SOLOS EVERYWHERE! “Countess of Discordia” is Alex Kot’s chance to shine with a thumping good time. While bassists usually get thrown under the bus, they make a band sound good or not – and the bass lines completely quake through this bad boy. There are some pretty gnarly squealies in this song, and they may induce an eargasm, so tread lightly.
“Time Will Take Us All” starts off in a different mood, all slow and melodic. For the most part, it’s really driven by the drums which are delivered gloriously from Dave Crnkovic. These are the kinds of tracks that I would play on Morning Metal, because they’re heavy and yet still deliciously relaxing. It gets progressively harder to keep my fanboy squeals to a minimum when Viathyn breaks out the growls on this track. Although it may not suit the song for some power metal fans, it really does the song justice for me.
“Three Sheets To The Wind” opens with tons of little licks. So many licks a cat would be jealous – this is the second time I have referenced a feline and it’s probably because one of them is laying on me while I write this. If you have enjoyed the album so far, you’ll be happy with “Three Sheets To The Wind”. Nothing too special, but not a bad track.
“Albedo”. HOLY SHIT.
The album ends with the title track, “Cynosure”. With my lack of explaining why “Albedo” is a holy shit track, just listen to it. “Cynosure” follows that track like a cigarette after… A previous cigarette. Sitting as the longest track on the album, closing in on 10 minutes (what is this, Dream Theater?), my first immediate reaction was “Goddamnit, I don’t have 10 minutes to sit and listen to a one song and expect to take it all in.” Guess what? It didn’t happen. I listened to a few times before making an educated response (because I have many of those, evidently).
(These dudes look goofy, my kind of metal band.)
You may be off-put by the fact it’s almost 10 minutes, but it really doesn’t feel like it. It’s a very enjoyable song if you’re listening to it and not doing anything else that could take away your attention. The songwriting on this album, especially this track, proves that his band pays attention to what they’re doing and how well they want to the overall vibe to leave on you. Mid-way through the song they whip out another clean bridge to give you a break from all those crazy double kicks. If you were to find an angel just wandering the streets, take his voice and put it into a normal mortal – you would get the vocal abilities of Tomislav Crnkovic.
Cynosure hits the retail and online world October 7th, 2014 and if you know what’s good for your ears – you’ll buy it. Canadian metal, no less – that means you’d be supporting your local metal scene. And that’s always a good thing.
Cynosure will be featured as Morning Metal’s Artist of the Week next week on October 1st, 2014, with Cynosure being played in full.
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James Rockso – Host of CKCU 93.1 FM’s Morning Metal
Metal Contributor – Ottawa Showbox, The Local Metal Scene & Pig Squeals and Breakdowns
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