CYDONIA: The dark flower CD PROMO. Powerful but Melodic Metal with a LOT of variation. Check audio.

Description

Metal Blade Records PROMO 7-4-2003    incl. Further promo material in CD-Rom part.

• 1 Midnight Man 4:13

• 2 Voices 4:22

• 3 One Last Crime 5:05

• 4 Dark Flower 4:54

• 5 Invisible 3:27

• 6 Another Age 3:35

• 7 Beyond Time 3:41

• 8 Master Shadow 4:35

• 9 Diamond Dust 4:11

• 10 Losing My Faith 4:12
• Total length: 42:15

A Jack Of All Trades… With A Personality !

The moment you first listen to The Dark Flower you really don’t know what is going on. The first initial …And Oceans feeling is soon replaced by Dream Theater, later to be replaced by Nevermore and Annihilator, only to turn into any common Italian Power Metal band, then raped into something off a hard-core or nu-metal release.

But for some reason, this strange mixture of genres, this bastardisation of more than 6 genres, for some obscene reason unknown to me DOES feel original. When you top it with a vocalist of extreme talent, and the rest of the line-up kicking in every department, you do start to feel like you might have some an ace in your hands… or in your CD player.

In fact it does get a little time getting used to. Changing from Arachnes to Dream Theater to Nevermore, sometimes the songs will feel strange. But once you get the hang of things, get initiated if I must describe it this way, a brave new world is opened before your eyes.

I believe that Cydonia are doing something with no reference to it. Because it is another thing to simply copy a riff from there, implement a keyboard from elsewhere and claim it your own: Cydonia feel original and fresh no matter the sounds and genres they combine.

Thing is, all the songs in the album are amazing. And when I say amazing is that as soon as one is over, the next takes the task of continuing to rock and move you, which is something that rarely ever happens in bands that attempt something new. Plainly put, it is one thing to write a single original song, or have a good original idea, but a completely different thing to be able to create an amazing song after an amazing song, and make each second in them be worth it.

I can see why some people won’t like this, and sometimes those Slipknot and System Of A Down references are too obvious to omit, but once you see how amazingly they can pull it off, and make them fade into something off …And Oceans, or Nevermore, or even Penumbra and Kovenant, you will soon understand that these boys not only have talents, but they know how to use them.

An amazing album, from a band that I expect more next time around. I know they can. I just hope that they did not raise the bar too high for their own good.

IMPRESSIVE POWER PROG MELODIC METAL FROM ITALY

This is the second and sadly, the final album of one of the very talented Italian bands from the massive wave of power metal bands that emerged from this beautiful country!It’s a great album,very rich and diverse-basically  it’s generic  power metal,but  with some interesting  prog and melodic twists and a great vocalist! CYDONIA can be compared to LABYRINTH among others,they have a strong identity and some very capable musicians on board!Nice album and a very likeble audition guaranteed!4 strong stars for me!

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слушаю это альбом время от времени, и с каждым разом впечатления становятся все лучше. Год назад я мельком пролистал песни и с удивлением обнаружил, что вместо стандартного Power Metal (как было у них на первом альбоме), группа стала исполнять жесткий Modern Power в духе Angel Dust, с некоторыми ню-металлическими влияниями. Но внимательно слушать не стал. И как оказалось – зря. Вот удачный пример сочетания Power, тяжелых риффов, электронных клавиш и ню-метальных фишек и рваных ритмов. Музыка агрессивная, но мелодичная и не слишком простая структурно. Вокал также и мелодичен и брутален. Нечасто но удачно используется женский бэк-вокал. Все вещи хороши без исключения. На порядок интереснее и лучше стандартного дебютного альбма. 5.0./5.0

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This is a pretty decent album and heavier than their first album.  Very enjoyable and recommended.