Label : Massacre Records
Review by Tony Cannella
From France, the melodic metal band Asylum Pyre already made one hell of a first impression with their 2009 debut, “Natural Instinct?”, now they have returned with their follow-up album “Fifty Years Later”. Since their debut, Asylum Pyre has changed female vocals with Chaos Heidi stepping in and proving to be a great choice.
Everything about Asylum Pyre screams class, from the song writing to the musicianship and overall presentation, “Fifty Years Later” has really kicked it up several notches from their debut. The band does a great job in mixing songs with epic arrangements with shorter songs while still maintaining a melodic base – everything is just so solid. Lead vocalist Chaos Heidi has a strong and diverse voice. She is equally adept at straight forward metal singing as she is at singing the more epic stuff. Guitarist Johann Cadot helps out with male vocals, but the majority of the singing is handled by Heidi. The opener “Will You Believe Me?” is a nice, peaceful and pretty opener as that leads into the bombastic “Dead in Copenhagen”. The riffs come hard and fast and this song definitely gets the blood pumping. It was at this moment that I realized “Fifty Years Later” could be something special and I was not disappointed. “The Frozen Will” keeps the power and momentum going. “The Fisherman’s Day” reminded me a bit of “The Islander” by Nightwish and is a nice change of pace. Other highlights include: “These Trees”, the 9 ½ minute “Any Hypothesis” and the closing 7 ½ minute “Fifty Years Later” which is ends things on a beautiful note.
The Femme Metal scene has never looked brighter, but it has become increasingly difficult to stand out from the pack, Asylum Pyre has managed to do just that with “Fifty Years Later”. Asylum Pyre should become one of the top bands in the melodic power metal genre. I wrestled with whether or not I should give “Fifty Years Later” a perfect score, but after listening, how could I not?
Rating – 100/100
Tracklist
- Will You Believe Me?
- Dead in Copenhagen
- The Frozen Will
- These Trees
- The Herd
- Fisherman’s Day
- Against the Sand
- Any Hypothesis
- Just Before the Silence
- Fifty Years Later
Line Up
- Chaos Heidi – Vocals
- Johann Cadot – Guitar & Vocals
- Herve Schiltz – Guitar
- Tony Decaillon – Keydboards
- Julien Peuch – Bass
Links
MySpace * Facebook * Twitter * Site
/strong