YYRKOON
Occult Medicine
(Osmose Productions)
46:21min

Another difficult review to write… How I hate this kind of record! It is musically ok for sure, but I wonder about the life span of such an album. If you remember well my recent TRAUMA review, I stated then that a good mastering of the instruments and the quality of a production can’t make up for a memorable album. Well, cut and paste that review into this one, because the result is more or less the same. The musicians of YYRKOON (a cool moniker by the way, taken from the Elric saga by Michael Moorcock) are without doubt talented and experienced, the music has its moment, the work put into this is obvious, so where is the problem? Simply in the fact that I feel absolutely nothing while listening to this and that I am sure I will be unable to identify this band in a blind test in one month (and even a week) from now. Unfortunately this is more and more true with the "slick" productions I listened to recently; it seems the list of bands of this kind is endless. YYRKOON play now (I read it was not the case previously) a form of commonly accepted modern Death Metal, totally clinical and devoid of hooks. You will swear this band comes from Sweden due to the soundscape these guys paint. The irony is they have a track called ‘Blasphemy’ in which you will not find any trace of madness or chaos. This record could be associated with all the bands trying hard to come up with the best product possible and forgetting the necessary outré elements that made some legendary albums still fresh sounding these days. If you dig bands like ARCH ENEMY, with growled vocals on nice melodic guitars, this one is surely for you. Sorry, but I prefer leather, spikes, silly lyrics about the power of Satan and musicians that put all they have into their music, regardless of their actual abilities. This is the idea of Metal I stand for. I know: I am a moron!

Edouard Vergriete

Edouard Vergriete

Related reviews / interviews:
YYRKOON - Unhealthy Opera (Edouard Vergriete)

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