Choriah

Mary's Room EP

Written by: PP on 23/09/2009 18:44:52

People who follow the Danish music scene closely: attention please. Here's a new band that we've heard little about so far: Choriah, a "progressive-indie-metal-rock" five-piece based on their own definition regarding their new four-track EP "Mary's Room". In reality though, they're positioned somewhere between a particularly heavy form of alternative rock and straight forward metal/core, not light or heavy enough to be properly lumped into either genre. Like so many other Danish metal bands, Choriah also possess 'that sound' which is so hard to describe, the typically Danish metal sound with the hollow and echoing production that results in the songs sounding like they were recorded in a live environment. Eventually someone needs to grab the Danish producers by the horns and teach them the virtues of a tight sound (though I guess Tue Madsen already masters that ability), because too many promising bands like Choriah are drowned out of potential because of ailing production values.

But aside from that, what else is there to know about "Mary's Room" EP? Well, for starters, it begins with a completely pointless echo/feedback intro track "Entering", which I suppose is alright the first time you're listening to the record, but you'll end up skipping it every time to get straight to "Death Ballet", a clean-vocal driven metal piece with a few hard rock influences in the mix as well. The band's singer Daniel Kousgaard has an unfathomable ability to sound like Trusted Few's Johan, which isn't a bad thing though considering how highly those guys are regarded at this magazine. Some good back up screams make an appearance every now and then, but in my opinion they should come out of the hiding more often as they provide nice contrast to Daniel's somewhat monotonous vocal expression. Then again, these guys are all around 18 years old, so they still have plenty of room to develop as vocalists and musicians and to take in inspirations from other bands. "Dollface", for instance, has a distant echo of a System Of A Down song thanks to the way the vocals are delivered, but after that it's back into the same (clean) emo/screamo/metal sound that Trusted Few masters so well.

Third track (discounting the intro) "Chapter Dismissed" resembles some of the older 36 Crazyfists material from their slightly more nu-metal influenced "Bloodwork" years, and not surprisingly it's also the best track on the EP. The scaling guitars and the quiet/loud vocal dynamic work exceptionally well in the chorus, and if the band are able to write more songs like this one, then at least a support slot at the next 36 Crazyfists concert in Denmark is to be expected. Last track "Slept In Mary's Room" continues on the same line as the rest of the songs, throwing some nice melodic leads at us and more Trusted Few inspired vocal work, but like on most other tracks on the EP, the production takes a huge chunk of the melody away. The solution would've been to either go much heavier, or alternatively, to remove the echoing live sound from the instruments and then we're talking. But at the same time, this is only a debut EP so much can still happen if these guys stay together and are allowed enough time to fine tune their song writing skills.

Download: Chapter Dismissed
For the fans of: Trusted Few, 36 Crazyfists
Listen: Myspace

Release date 25.06.2009
UNSIGNED BAND

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