"Newcomer of the Year" - sure I
know 2007 is still very, very young - but Krypteria has
delivered one Hell of an album, that surely at the end of the year
will have brought a lot of well deserved attention to this
Korean/German outfit. And the signs for this album to be very
successful are very good; the female fronted Metal throne is vacant after
Tarja Turonen left Nightwish. The timing couldn't be better and
loaded
with this amazing album they are armed and ready to make a shot at
the title.
Krypteria is fronted by Korean vocalist,
violinist and pianist Ji-In
Cho and she has teamed up with the German contingent of guitarist
Chris Siemons, who together with drummer S.C. Kuschnerus have
written the majority of the 12 songs on the album. Bass player Frank
Stumvoll completes the line-up. Chris Siemons is also handling the
keyboards on the album.
'Bloodangel's Cry' is a versatile
concept album, which has it's basics in traditional power metal -
with songs like the brilliant power ballad "The Night the Angel's
Cry" or "The Promise", which have strong parallels with (old)
Savatage. More modern sounding songs like "Scream", "All System's
Go", "Somebody Save Me" or "I Can't Breathe" brings up references to
Evanescence. All songs have one thing in common: big, memorable and
catchy choruses - some are very symphonic, others make one think of
Christofer Johansson's (Therion) way of creating big choirs using
Gregorian choir structures. The fun doesn't stop with those songs
mentioned above...one highlight follows another: "Time to Bring the
Pain", "Lost" and "Sweet Revenge" grabs you by the balls before the
album ends on a very high note with the semi-progressive closer: "At
the Gates of Retribution". The last song is my personal favorite on
the album, just listen to the brilliant combination of guitar and
violin in the beginning or how about the big choirs in the excellent
middle-part...
But the album wouldn't be so
impressive without the strong vocal performance from classical
trained Ji-In Cho, who throughout the entire album shows great
skills and versatility. She brings this album into the Champions
League and do not have to hide from other great metal vocalists like
Amy Lee, Tarja Turonen or
Sharon
den Adel.
If I have to nitpick some then a
few things could have been better: the
production - some of the guitar sounds and the overall drum sound leads to some muddy sounding songs (especially
on "Dream Yourself Far Away"), and I am not totally convinced by a
few guitar leads. But this is their
debut album on a small budget and they (Chris Siemons) have taken it
upon themselves to produce, engineer, mix and master the album in
their own studio - twofourmusic Studios - and
the end result is still better than most of the competition. But just imagine what an outside
producer can do for them on their next album...
This album has elevated itself
straight to the Top of my favourites this year and I can only
recommend metal fans of all ages to at least give this album a
listen... I know I am a sucker for this kind of metal, but this
album does have so much depth and versatility, the songs are
delivered with strong conviction, and even though there is room for
improvement, this has to be one the most impressive debut albums in
a very, very long time...
Need I say more? I don't think so,
so what are you waiting for?
Recommended: Get this album
now!
