Cyrax - Pictures

Tell you what: if you're looking for the new home of original metal, it's gotta be Italy. What can I say?With bands like Destrage out there, it's hard to ignore the fact that there are bands that eschew the trappings of musical categorization and just write what appeals to them as musicians - even if it may make it hard for people in the industry to label them. This brings us to Cyrax. Like fellow Italian (seriously, where are all of these bands coming from?!) rockers Destrage, the boys in Cyrax like to let their musical ideas run wherever the fuck they want, but the results are undeniably compelling.

Their sophomore effort Pictures amply demonstrates this strange blend of classical, progressive, and heavy metal music with a fascinating mélange that never goes completely off the rails even if it damn well goes up on two wheels quite a bit in the turns. But for all of this seemingly barely managed chaos, listeners can easily make out individual influences should they pay attention. The 7th Seal is a good example, with Queen-like multi-layered choral moments accenting the rhythmic bombast of Symphony X or Dream Theater. The rest of the album has a wonderful sense of dynamics too, interspersing contemplative piano phrasing amongst the satisfying chug of guitar. And the three-part Shine Through Darkness piece should definitely convince you of Cyrax's eclectic genius over its nearly 15 minute length as it juxtaposes the sounds of harpsichords and Hammond organs over a nice layer of balls and chunk. If I had to find one niggling factor in all of this, it's got to be the tendency of the quasi-operatic vocal stylings to get out of hand, almost sounding like someone's idea of a joke. Johnny Carson would likely have called it "weird, wild stuff", but all in all I must say I really like it. 

The Bottom Line: Cyrax creates an intriguing mix of progressive metal, classical music, and plain old heavy metal in typical, Italian, fearless fashion. The vocals can get a little overblown, but this is an impressive sophomore release.

- Genghis is really tripping on all of this amazing Italian metal...