Cydonia

Cydonia's self-titled is a concept album about human inhabitants colonizing the ‘new world’, only a much larger and more sci-fi scale. The story talks of the planet Earth having been ruled by near perfect, holy beings that could paint sky with stars called the Masters Of Stars. It also talks about humans that formally lived on Mars, and colonized planet Earth as the red planet sunk into cold, lifeless darkness. Supposedly, the entities called the Masters Of Stars were a dying race, and eventually died out, but instead of rotting and decaying like normal mortals, the race became spiritual beings of the planet Earth. The humans built monuments in honor of the greater, spiritual beings, and as time goes on, the existence of the Masters Of Stars became mixed into religious belief, until the tales of perfect race turned into nothing more then constellations in the sky.

After some dark, ascending ambient noise narrated over by a mystical female voice, the opening riffs to The King kick in with sweeping melody and fast drum work. As the vocals kick in, it becomes apparent that Cydonia come from Queensryche’s roots, emerging into the underrated genre of power metal. The riffs are amazingly fast and the drum work is perfect on the track. The guitar solo is also worthy to b compared to DragonForce (only much shorter in length). The lyrics talk of the king of the human race, eyeing planet Earth for migration to save his people. Legend In Time begins with some funky bass groves and a few strums at the guitar string that deliver a very dark melody before heavier guitar riffs and keyboard backdrop kick in. The song delivers some pummeling blast beats along with slow, heavy bass grooves and amazing guitar work. The vocalists hits some pretty high notes in the song while still maintaining even flow with the constant, catchy riffs.

Land Of Life kicks off with some straightforward, constant riffs before bursting into another aura of power metal perfection. The keyboards in the track really stand out as the create symphonic orchestras of sound during the breakdowns of the song. The vocal performance on the track is also classic Queensryche inspired power metal. The guitar solo on the track is also one of the best on the album and flows well with the constant speed of the song. Great Soul Of Steel is another epic sounding track with dark, orchestrated keyboards at the intro followed by some fast drum lines and overlapped guitar riffs. The track has some great keyboard and guitar riffs that work together constantly to create an interesting atmosphere with the drums and vocals. The only real downside to the song is that the bass is very hard to hear due to the heavy focus on the keyboard and guitar work. Another great solo on the track is worth mentioning as well.

The most epic track on the album (and the longest one), is Last Prayers, which starts with some beautiful keyboard and guitar melodies and the vocalist delivering an amazing vocal performance. The guitars then kick in full force with some amazing riffage followed by some blast beats as the vocalist continues to prove that he is indeed a worthy adversary to Geoff Tate. The track as some amazing epical orchestral pieces and some great vocal melody breakdowns along with some very atmospheric, heavy riffage. The guitar solos on the track are also worth noting to be, again, a competitive match to DragonForce. The ascending keyboard intro in Confused Future shows, once again, the band’s dark, orchestral influences. The song then bursts into another standard power metal track that contains a very powerful bridge that pummels hard before going into another amazing duet guitar solo. Yet another powerful track in the band’s arsenal of simple amazing power metal.

Masters Of Stars, the biggest stand out track on the album lyrically, begins with an epic keyboard intro that reminds a lot of Kamelot. After the atmospheric keyboard intro, the song goes into a more mellowed out, yet still heavy guitar riff that leads into some spazzy guitar work followed by a great groove that is backed up by the vocalist. The keyboard backdrop on the track is the biggest standout as it gives the song a very symphonic sound. A great keyboard solo is even present in the track, dominating the second bridge. The opening bass funk grooves and rum roll in Slave To Dream brings a nice, different sound to the album flow. The track has some very spazzy, crunchy guitar work and focuses more on the bass and drums. The chorus to the track is very dominating as well, coming out very mono but very catchy at the same time. The track also seems to experiment with some more guitar solos and some interesting bass work.

The last track on the album, Eternal Night, begins with more vocal harmonizing and soft guitar strums. The song is very soft and works much like a ballad on the album. The vocals on the track are some of the best on the album, and the drums give a very dynamic feel to it. The song has perfect flow and ends up being a great closer to this amazing album. Overall, Cydonia is an amazing progressive power metal band with great story telling abilities and amazing song structure. A must buy for any fans of DragonForce, old Queensryche, and Kamelot.

THIS WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR SPUTNIKMUSIC.COM