Hypnotic

If you had to review this album assuming that Thyrane had no other releases, what would you give it? Maybe a slightly higher rating, but probably still a low rating because it's not tr00. Well, fuck all of that.

What makes this album different than the rest of Thyrane's discography? Well, their first album was symphonic black metal. Their second album was still symphonic black metal, but it started to lean away from that and towards industrial black metal. Now it was by no means industrial, but you could tell it was the turning point - much like Children of Bodom's "Hate Crew Deathroll." Well, maybe not quite that dramatic of an example. Their next album after this one, the fourth one, is still industrial black metal, but they leaned back to their roots a little more. This release is solid industrial black metal. You can still tell they came from more symphonic roots though.

Lets get to why this album doesn't deserve such a bad rap. Some of the songs and rhythms here are quite catchy. It's nice to hear some groove in black metal every now and then. The musicianship is solid. The composition is great. The mix is near perfect. The one thing though to exalt over all other qualities in this album, is the fact that unlike several other leading industrial black metal acts - this album fails to get repetitive within itself. There are plenty of interesting key lines and guitar lines. Take for example, the song "Phantasmal Paranoia." This is probably the best track on the album, in my opinion.

Now let's get into why, though it doesn't deserve to get reamed, doesn't really deserve to get hailed that highly either. This album does plod along at a fairly moderate rate. Nothing wrong with that in itself, but it can lend to be pretty boring at times. It's one of the reasons that I can't really like SLOpeth that much. Some tempo changes could have been quite nice here and there. The album also lacks a little bit of punch, or drive, or power. I like listening to this album, but I couldn't put it on in the car and roll down the windows, blasting it as I pulled into the parking lot of the concert I was going to. The place that lacks the most is the vocal area. The vocals are way too laid back and relaxed. I don't think that the vocals being more powerful would help though - they'd just sound kind of odd next to the music. So they work well within the confines of the style of this album. If they just brought more punch and power and drive to it, the album could have been a lot better.

Thyrane has definitely been the unpredictable band in their career. Their first few demos and full length "Symphonies Of Infernality" saw them playing a very blasphemous symphonic black metal style that was really extreme. Up to "The Art Of Rebellion", they sort of tuned down their extreme sound and played what I call "bland black metal" as in any old, non-unique black metal (think Dark Funeral and any other band who thinks Mayhem are "Gods.") Now they've gone... even less extreme?! Industrial?! What the hell?

Talk about a dramatic change in sound, this album "Hypnotic" is blackened industrial metal. It's not even remotely close to black metal if I may say so myself... there's no blast beat to be found, heathen vocals, blistering riffs or unholy hymns to be found here. What we have here is an album very similar sounding to bands like ...And Oceans, Pain, Red Harvest, The Kovenant and hell, even a little bit of Godflesh of all of the non-related bands! In other words, this is weak half-black metal... just gone techno and all electronic with hints of... well, uh geniuses!

I'm not complaining about this CD as most other people do. I fully support the idea of experimenting at least once or a few times in your musical career... just as long as it's not something like you once played death metal and now play boy-band teen pop! So, Thyrane really made something interesting here that I'm really digging. This really is a magnificent album that I cannot help but keep playing over and over! Fuck being "tr00" and "kvlt"! Thyrane obviously break that ethic in the black metal scene with this album and it's still a good album. I always thought an album doesn't have to be good just based on its speed or how many times a band says "Satan" in their music. This is totally opposite of all of that so be aware if you want to hear this album!

I like their use of synths and sound effects to further enhance the listening experience. I think that's what makes this album stand out the most and this wouldn't be as good as an album if there wasn't any synths. Thyrane has always been that kind of band that wouldn't be all that great if they never had any keyboards in their music so this shouldn't come as a surprise to anyone with this band. It also shouldn't come to be a surprise that they always have this crisp clear production which leaves space for everything to breathe so that's always a plus in Thyrane's case.

Don't get me wrong: this album is very good but it seems like Thyrane has what I call the "50-50" symptom. The 50-50 symptom is defined as a band that releases an album with the first few tracks being excellent while the last few tracks kind of (or really) suck. With this said, some excellent tracks on this CD are songs like "Human Weed", which starts off weak with a techno effect over it and once the chorus and synths come in, the song takes on this whole new feeling of great listening. It's quite the trippy listen if you ask me. "Firework" is probably one of the better tracks on the CD with it's slow riff playing over random synths that really bring the song to life. The bridge parts to this song are really impressive as well with it's melodic guitar work. Of all the tracks that are great, "Glamorama Demystified" has to be the best one on this CD. It's one of the "epic" songs on this CD over 6 minutes long with a very simple guitar riff driven by a synth played simultaneously over it. The song length creates great room for the catchy synths to grab you in and make you ironically want to dance yet headbang. This song definitely wouldn't be anything without the synths and that's for sure. "Dance In The Air" really has this trance feel to it with it's distinct drumming and synth works. This, as well as the last track, makes you somehow want to dance and headbang.

Everything after these tracks (and the short tribal-like instrumental "Armaya") is nothing like the rest of the first half of this CD. "The Symptomatic" fails terribly with its bad guitar riff work while "Phantasmal Paranoia" doesn't have as catchy of a synth layout as the last few songs. "Sickening" is more of a symphonic track than industrial with a generic melodic-death guitar riff with very few synths thrown in but still doesn't seem to appeal as a standout track. "Of Suns And Flames" is another one of those "skip it" tracks while "Heretic Hunt" seems to stand out as another epic song with great synth arrangements and catchy choruses. I suppose that's a nice way to end this CD.

True black metal fans and old school fans of Thyrane should stay away from this release unless they're open minded to non-extreme metal with industrial touches. This CD really is for the open minded within the extreme metal world and not for the heavy at heart. So if you don't think you'll shake your head in shame at Thyrane's use of synths and losing their black edge, then this shouldn't be that bad of a listening experience for you. Just be prepared to expect something totally out of the ordinary with these once extreme black metal overlords. It isn't as bad as people make it seem... it's just some people cannot tolerate a band losing their "kvltness" or whatever the hell that's suppose to mean.


Ear Candy: Human Weed, Firework, Glamorama Demystified, Dance In The Air...

I have heard good things about Thyrane's older albums. I have heard that they were a band you could look up to. An actual symphonic black metal band.

Well if they were, this sure fuckin' ain't them. Now they're half a band. As most industrial bands do, Thyrane had to come up with a 'sly' term for their halfassed music. In this case, something like "Mechanized Black Metal Supremacy." Well, it ain't black. And there's no supremacy except over bands like Superjoint Ritual, but those shouldn't even be compared.

Most of the riffs are boring and tend to just be a droning tool to get synth thrown over them, but a couple nice ones do appear (ex. Human Weed). Even those aren't that good, and the synth is just beeps and such. Nothing groundbreaking, or different, or anything you haven't heard if you listen to techno anyway.

The vocals flat out suck. Who the fuck is this guy? Everything he says sounds exactly the same. I mean I can make out different words, but his voice.. everything he SAYS sounds the same. Only half-black "growls" are used the entire time. Nothing clean, operatic, no female backing, and when covered by more half assed leads, half industrial synth that seems to almost trying to be symphonic, you get Thyrane. Rinse, repeat, get bored.

I can safely say that if someone remixed Firework or Dance In The Air, they'd be rave classics. And hell, I wouldn't mind that. I like that sort of music. The work used here could be put to much better use in that sort of atmosphere if (re)done properly.

Until then, there are a couple salvagable tracks, none that can get you to headbang, but nevertheless are catchy. The rest.. bah, fuck them.

If you want GOOD industrial/-black, go to Tidfall or Aborym. The former sound a good bit like Thyrane, but a cross with Thyrane's good points and a bit of Dimmu Borgir. So if you like some of Thyrane here, but parts you find to be monotonous, and some just downright bore you, seriously check out those two bands.