Korypheus - Over the Rainbow - Album Review - Modern Progressive Metal from Kyiv, Ukraine
Today we are featuring a promising modern progressive metal band, Korypheus, from Kyiv, Ukraine, with, "Over the Rainbow" their first long-play album.
I personally consider Korypheus as one of the talented Ukrainian metal bands for some time now, but we had an understanding when I watched their Goliath music video for the first time. The Ukrainian metal scene is doing incredible and I would love to share more about it in the near future.
Over the Rainbow album is Korypheus' fifth official release and the debut studio album (long play) at the same time. Keeping in mind that they started their careers in 2019 with an EP called, Blessed, the band has done successfully in their careers so far, in terms of musicality. This album musically has a large variety to offer, even might sound a bit too much for some. You simply hear some of the best parts out from Opeth to Jinjer, from Joe Satriani to Meshuggah working perfectly together under Korypheus' umbrella, which is why this album is a good listen.
The moment I realized some of these songs were released as singles before, it gave me a little bit more insight into the album's musical concept. Korypheus in this way is still musically in development, and this was the first thing that came to my mind. Over the Rainbow has that feeling like you listen to music from different periods of this band. It's impressive to hear how much music this band has to offer.
As for the listenability, the album has a commercial approach with its sound, but still a difficult listen, in terms of music. Even though things get really ugly in some songs, they never lose control or get out of their character. Compositions are quite progressive and complex in general, where the instrumentation balances it from time to time or contributes directly to a more progressive direction.
Collectively, I also think that Korypheus has a strong character. The album focuses on the vocals mostly, maybe even at a commercial level, and I am in between about him. The fact is that he's very talented and got a solid personality in his vocals, what worried me more was connected to the sound design that I'll explain later.
Also, I loved those fat guitars which get groovy, nu-metal, and modern prog while never losing the connection with the melody. The guitar player also reminded me of Joe Satriani throughout the album, and I enjoyed hearing such tones from him.
Lastly, I'd like to say a few things about the Goliath music video as well. I am following the scene almost every day for a long time and the production standards of the Goliath video looked quite established to me, immediately pulling the viewer into that world. The song, on the other hand, I believe is one of Korypheus' most characteristic song from this album, tells us a lot about their actual potential, which was one of the reasons I started getting more involved with their work. Some of our readers might remember that I am into progressive death metal, and glad to hear that Korypheus' is musically headed somewhere that way.
On the other side of the coin, I have to admit that Over the Rainbow isn't one of those albums which will leave any commercial or non-commercial melody in your memory after a listen, which doesn't mean anything better or worse, only didn't make a story for me.
Moreover, Over the Rainbow album is a step forward for the band, which will always represent their roots properly. However, at the same time, I feel like the band needs more focus on their musical direction.
When I put all these into account, I can say that I already decided to listen to every new Korypheus release from now on simply because of this album. Another talented Ukrainian collective with established standards, impressive musical range, progressive death metal origins, and solid modern sound.
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