Whyzdom - Symphony For A Hopeless God review
| Band: | Whyzdom |
| Album: | Symphony For A Hopeless God |
| Style: | Symphonic metal |
| Release date: | February 17, 2015 |
| A review by: | Ag Fox |
01. While The Witches Burn
02. Tears Of A Hopeless God
03. Let's Play With Fire
04. Eve's Last Daughter
05. Don't Try To Blind Me
06. The Mask
07. Asylum Of Eden
08. Waking Up The Titans
09. Theory Of Life
10. Where Are The Angels
11. Pandora's Tears
A new symphonic metal album! Hooray! *waits for the audience to leave, apart from the remaining 5 fans of the genre in this site* Sometimes, I can't help but speculate how many fans of the genre are there left who are still around, and it's hard to blame them for being fickle, as the genre has been stagnating since many years ago, especially when you compare other "new frontiers" in metal which have seen their popularity and creativity rise at exponential levels.
What we have here is a bit different though. Since their debut back in 2009, I've been following the progress of Whyzdom, and with Symphony For A Hopeless God already being their third album, they're no longer the young and inexperienced creative artists, which means there are certain expectations to be met. Oh, for those who aren't familiar with this symphonic metal outfit from France, I haven't even mentioned that each of their previous full lengths have had the prestige of being a Metal Storm Awards nominee.
Now that I've (hopefully) drawn you in, I need to state the obvious problem. Marie Rouyer is already the band's fourth vocalist, and each time a band experiences a change in a key member, it's easy to have doubts. The best way to describe her vocal work here is "varied", and for this reason alone, I can say that it has elevated Whyzdom's new album from "nice but ultimately kind of forgettable" to "memorable". I can imagine fans being divided on this, because in quite a few instances, Marie's voice sounds rather forced, and the rough edges could do with a bit more polish. However, the merits of the new vocals became more apparent to me after re-listening to their previous album. What Marie brings to the table is a really varied timbre, ranging from normal singing, to operatic ones, and more powerful rock vocals, and it's this variation, coupled with perhaps better melodies that makes this album stick in the mind.
It's unfair for me to just focus on the vocalist of course, but the truth is that she really stole the show, and the rest of the band did a great job in complementing her in terms of composing good melodies, the fine orchestral arrangements that actually add value to the music, and performing as professionals should.
So? have my expectations been met? You bet, but in an unexpected manner. The vocals may be down to personal preference, and while it's lacking in finesse compared to the more established names in this sub-genre of music, she sounds positively striking. Whyzdom has never been a band which makes poppy-sounding compositions, and it's no different here, but the addition of Marie has given them a new weapon in their arsenal to display a rawer edge to their music, and subsequently standout among the sea of me-too bands.
Rating breakdown
| Performance: | 8 |
| Songwriting: | 8 |
| Originality: | 7 |
| Production: | 8 |
 | Written on 29.03.2015 by Ag Fox loves listening to music but is far from being a prolific writer. This corner just shows how territorial he is. |
Comments
Comments: 11
Visited by: 208 users
| PocketMetal Posts: 750 |
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| Lionthrone Posts: 121  |
I agree with the melodies setting this band apart from the norm of the genre. They seem to come heavier, with the orchestra more complimenting the music rather than overpowering. I also enjoyed the varied tones of the vocalist as mentioned in the review. She seems talented and I could see her really coming into her own on future albums. Symphonic isn't my cup of tea these days but I think if it's a favored genre of yours then you should check these guys out.
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| Bad English Tage Westerlund Posts: 62020  |
As the genre has been stagnating since many years ago.... I argree lad, but mainly because media  labels and so on
---- I stand whit Ukraine and Israel. They have right to defend own citizens. Stormtroopers of Death - "Speak English or Die"  I better die, because I never will learn speek english, so I choose dieing
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| Susan Smeghead Elite Posts: 6941  |
I disagree the genre is stagnating. Every genre has great bands, good bands, and generic crap, like Whyzdom.
---- "A life all mine Is what I choose At the end of my days" --The Gathering "A Life All Mine" from Souvenirs
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| Ag Fox Angel No More Elite Posts: 4774  |
Written by PocketMetal on 29.03.2015 at 22:56 Each to their own I guess. I found Blind? less gripping and while it was nice, I can't recall much from it after a while, whereas I find myself humming to bits and pieces of tunes from Symphony For A Hopeless God. Written by Susan on 30.03.2015 at 01:16 so you're saying Whyzdom is generic crap? o.o
---- loves 小巫
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| whyzdom Posts: 28  |
Hey, thanks for the review, AG Fox. I'm glad you liked the album ! (for those unaware, I am Vynce Leff from Whyzdom, and i like chatting with listeners on Metal Storm). @PocketMetal : Thank you for your comment, yes Blind? is an album we like a lot. I would say that in this one, we wanted to give a rawer edge to the songs. Marie has a more powerful tone than Elvyne, so we were naturally drawn to that side of things. But we also thought that lately, symphonic metal bands had a tendency to be lazy on the guitar side, that's why we emphasized heavy (thrash at times) riffs on Symphony. So, AG Fox comment "no poppy sound" brought a smile on my face  . About french and accent, well, you know, it's complicated. I used to write songs in french 20 years ago, but the label who signed us asked me to re-do everything in english... so... @Lionthrone : I'm really really really happy to read your comment "the melodies setting this band apart from the norm of the genre", because, that's a huge point of our work. We really work a lot on the melody. @Susan : I'm sorry that you consider Whyzdom as "generic crap". It's absolutely normal that some people hate our music. I generally don't react to negative comments, but I was wondering about your word "generic". I'm pretty sure you can find dozens reasons to dislike our music. But I don't feel that "generic" describes our music well. I have tons of examples, but here is one : in our single "While The Witches Burn", we worked a lot on the refrain : if you listen closely, you'll find that the time signature is not "generic 4/4" (which is the time signature of 99,9999% of rock/metal songs). So in this case, it seems to me that this song is definitely not "generic". - which does not mean that it's not crap (it's up to you to like it or not). I have tons of other examples, like atonal orchestrations in Daughter of The Night, or Cathedral of the Damned, or the use of woodwinds, which is very rare in symphonic metal bands, or the use of staccato/pizzicato articulations, etc, etc... Cheers !
---- Vynce / Whyzdom http://www.facebook.com/whyzdomproject http://www.whyzdom.com
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| Byners Posts: 215  |
Whyzdom isn' a band I usually like very much, but somehow, their song "Atlantis" is one of my favorite songs ever. I'll definetively try this album someday. Thank you for this review (Y)
---- "Seize the day or die regretting the time you lost..."
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| CyberSymphony Ollie Posts: 673  |
I like that symphonic metal is still being reviewed positively on this site. I personally like the sound of Whyzdom, while not greatly original, nor do I particularly like the vocals either, the music is really bombastic and quite heavy at times.
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| TheMAGAmvm Soycrusher Posts: 1086  |
Much of what I disliked in the previous album has been corrected here. Good album, one of the better symphonic metal releases this year, and one that does not forget to be original in its own way. Strong songwriting, good instrumental performance, a satisfying (at times, wonderful) vocal delivery and so on. I think many longrunning or newcomming symphonic metal bands should notice Whyzdom, as it stands above like 80% of what this scene has to offer today.
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| Lionthrone Posts: 121 |
It's a pleasant surprise to come here and see Vynce chiming in. Congrats on the release of your new album! I purchased several songs on this release and plan on checking out your older work as well. Thanks for all the hard work.
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| Ag Fox Angel No More Elite Posts: 4774 |
Written by whyzdom on 30.03.2015 at 19:43 Thanks for reading o.o I really enjoyed your album, and Whyzdom really has their own identity and compose songs that has replay value, but it's more so in this album (= I also totally agree with you that symphonic metal bands get really lazy with the guitars (instead, they try to stand apart by being folky or something), and I always prefer the heavier side of things. I suspect you guys might do something different next time, so let's see! I don't know about how the album would turn out with French lyrics, but I really had no problem understanding Marie without looking at the lyrics sheet. I think you guys should choose a song and record it with french lyrics, then let the fans vote on which version they prefer. I don't think there's anything to lose in doing that
---- loves 小巫
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