Yyrkoon, another in a long line of brilliant metal bands from France, draws its name from the saga of Elric. Despite always wanting to read it, I haven't, so if that name connects into their music at all I couldn't tell you. However, I have a pretty good feeling this album is unrelated to that fantasy series.The title is fairly self-explanatory as to the lyrical content of the album. Mad doctors, twisted experiments, the living dead, and so forth. Musically we have death metal with a thrash component, along the lines of Darkane. There's a fair amount of atmosphere strewn amongst the frenetic tunes, and Yyrkoon aren't afraid to bring some melody to the table -- so expect some departures from the death metal onslaught. They are not pervasive, though.
The fifth track, the title track, opens on something of an ambient passage, the beep of a heart monitor along with nightmarish, skittering strings, sounding (very) briefly like a long-lost sibling of Bohren & der Club of Gore. We hear the sounds of a tesla coil before the song truly begins. The backbone riff of the song is somewhat technical, energetic and yet still dark. Stéphane Souteryrand's somewhat accent-inflected vocals fit right in, ranging from death growls to more straightforward clean singing and everything in between. The lyrics seem to be slightly hampered by the band's limited grasp on English, but their English is a hell of a lot better than my French, so I can't complain much.
"Revenant Horde" is the sixth track, and is about zombies. I'm for it. "Reversed World" expands further on that topic. All in all the album is very enjoyable, and it does its subject matter justice. My main gripe with it is after repeated listens the songs begin to blend together somewhat, keeping it from reaching a higher score from me.
Verdict: Win [8.5/10] (madness begins where your reason stops)
http://www.yyrkoon.net/
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