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LYZANXIA - Mindcrimes |
Reality Entertainment | |
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Posted: 10/19/04Reviewed by: Steve Gottlieb Category: Melodic Death Metal Released: 2003 Label URL: www.reality-entertainment.com Band URL: www.lyzanxia.com | |
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Hmmm. Looking at the band name, I can’t help but wonder if there’s another word that uses the letters x, y, and z. Nope, can’t think of a one. Despite the tongue-twisting band name, Lyzanxia puts forth some decent, melodic death metal along the lines of Soilwork and In Flames. Amazingly, though, these guys aren’t from Sweden --- they’re a bunch of Frenchies! Produced by master knob-turner Fredrik Nordstrom, Mindcrimes (their 2nd album) has enough strong tunes to stand up to most albums of the genre. And the band, led by brothers Franck and David Potvin (both guitars and vocals), is musically competent to compete with any band out today. The riffs and solos are crisp, clean and plentiful, and the rhythm section of Eguil Voisin (bass) and Dirk Verbeuren (drums) provides a solid foundation that threatens to crush everything in its path. The vocals are split between your typical death metal growl and some decent clean vocals, and actually lean toward the cleaner side (or at least enough so to keep a regular metal head interested). The clean and extreme vocals often play off against each other nicely, as in the opener “Time Dealer” and the blistering “Fugitive.” The singers’ accents cause some mispronunciations that add an unintentional bit of levity, as in “Damnesia” where they sing about memory loss, but unwittingly put the accent on the wrong syllable when they sing ‘my memory.’ Nitpicking on my part? Yes. Funny? You betcha! But, a few vocal gaffes shouldn’t turn you away from some decent tunes, which feature the great guitar playing of the Potvin brothers. Whoever thought the Frenchies could play so well! The songs are varied enough to keep the listener interested, and range from the head-on, Meshuggah-ish staccato rhythms of “Mind Split” to the ‘Alice in Chains-meets-At the Gates’ vibe of “D.M.” Most of the lyrics have a sci-fi slant, which makes for some interesting storylines but unfortunately doesn’t help with the In Flames comparisons.
The Bloody Truth: In all, Mindcrimes isn’t the best or most original melodic death metal album, but is certainly above average, and there’s probably enough clean vocals to appeal to a regular metal head. If you’re into Scandinavian melodic extreme metal ala In Flames, Arch Enemy, Soilwork, et al, then Lyzanxia will be right up your alley. There’s not too much on here that you haven’t heard before from this genre, but the band does manage to put their own stamp on this otherwise overplayed style. Oh, and by the way, please email us if you think of another word or name that uses the letters x, y and z. | ||
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