Stygian

Fury Rising

Written by: PP on 08/02/2010 23:00:24

Apparently the members of Philadelphia, US based Stygian formed their band as diehard Metallica fans, and strove to learn every song from "Creeping Death" to "Dyer's Eve" before proceeding to write music of their own. Predictably enough, their sophomore album "Fury Rising" also sounds like an outtake from a Metallica worship group's jam session, with a few other old school thrash metal influences thrown into the mix for good measure. So is it any good? That's the question I'm here to answer for you guys.

The short answer is that "Fury Rising" isn't too bad of a Metallica clone in comparison to many others I've heard in the past. On the flipside, it's not a great one either, as you probably deducted from my deliberate usage of the "clone" word in the previous sentence. Stygian explicitly state they aspire for writing unique music, but then how come a song like "My Regret" sounds like a direct rip off of any famous ballad made by Metallica, starting from the identical James Hetfield vocal melodies to the way the chord guitars progress forward? The same applies to "One More Shot" and "The Fear", except the former represents mid-paced Metallica and the latter the thrashier one. Even when the band spills over into heavy metal territory ("Crimson Sand"), they still sound like Metallica. Perhaps they should've learned their instruments while playing music by a variety of bands instead of just one. Occasionally, other elements make their way into Stygian's sound, like the Slayer-esque instrumentation in "Fury Rising", or the somewhat softer "Last Redemption" which actually brings a Finnish band called Smokesuit into mind for the way the guitar tone has been made to sound a little grungy. It's one of the highlights on the record, and it'd be interesting to see Stygian explore this angle on their sound further during band practice, because I have a feeling this could be an area of triumph for the band.

However, it'd be wrong to bin Stygian entirely because despite their desire to imitate Metallica in every way humanly possible, simply because the band does indeed have an ability to write decent riffs and good song structures that stick to mind. They may not be particularly original, but there are a few tracks that I'd categorize underneath the term 'solid', for sure. So if you're longing for more 90s Metallica, check out "Fury Rising".

6

Download: My Regret, Suffer Patiently
For the fans of: 90s-era Metallica, Slayer, Last Redemption
Listen: Myspace

Release date 09.02.2010
Mortal Music

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