Krypteria
Bloodangel's Cry
Rating
Style: Power Metal
Release date: January 19th 2007
 

"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!


 
Label: Synergy Records
Distribution: EMI (Denmark)
Reviewed by: Kenn Jensen
Date: January 27th 2007
Website: www.krypteria.de