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Could it be that they read my 2011 review about their EP 'Lyonite' and listened to my advices? No, I don't think so, they are skilled enough to make progression and know what is the best for them. That doesn't change the fact that the first track is immediately an up-tempo track and that was one of my remarks back then, adding some faster stuff. I get back on the music later on in this review. Lyonite is a Dutch band from my own province and I have already had the opportunity to see them live. I don't remember the exact date, but it must have been somewhere in the spring of 2011 at Bolwerk in Sneek and later on also in Sneek at The Legend. If I am not mistaken, I remember vocalist Claudia Edwards van Muijen being sick on the last event and that the band was forced to do an instrumental gig. But I am not really sure, it could have been another gig in the Legend too from a different band. This debut full-length is an album that will be liked by many female fronted progressive symphonic metal fans. The first track "Liberty" has besides the high tempo some nice Hammond sounding keys and that really adds something to their style. Later on those Hammond sounding keys appear every now and than in several other tracks. In my opinion the band sounds heavier than before, which can definitely be heard in the fifth track "Tenfold the Threshold". In that instrumental song they open up all their registers and show what they are capable of. After the intro "Mythecal Interlude" the third song "Pride" is a mid-tempo track with serene parts where Claudia takes the lead. The slower instrumental part in the song has a beautiful guitar line and the faster part in the end finishes it off. This track has a lot of variation and a band like Pagan's Mind enters my mind because of the rather technical progressive parts. Did I already say that throughout the album the keys are very well balanced and mixed in the music and really work in favor of the tracks? There is variation enough on this CD, like for example in 'My Disguise', where spoken parts, majestic keys and piano interludes are naturally and smoothly changed into very heavy riffing. The majestic/epic opening part of "Forgiveness" is yet another introduction to a technical track that varies in tempo from fast to slow. The beautiful ballad "Soundless Motions" shows that Claudia can put a lot of emotion in her singing and how intense piano and singing can be. During the last track "Darkness Ends" the talented band shows that they are a new Dutch female fronted band to reckon with. In my 2011 review I wrote that they can be described as a little less technical/progressive female fronted Pagan's Mind. I still have that opinion, but on the other hand they are very different too. In the biography they write that the band is influenced by Dream Theater, Nightwish and Sonata Arctica. They do indeed combine the progressiveness of Dream Theater, the symphonic parts of Nightwish and the power metal riffs of Sonata Arctica, but because of their own twist, they make it Lyonite! The presentation of the new CD will be 9 February, 2013 in Schaaf City Theater, Leeuwarden. | ||||||||||||||||||
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