Review Summary: Urizen's first full-length release, Autocratopolis, is a great work of art. Its lyrics are polished and intellectual, and the concept of the album is interesting. It's a great fusion of different genres, and an incredible start.
When I found out about this band, I thought that it was going to be mediocre, at best; a stage set up at a Six Flags amusement park, a double bass drum kit in the back, with a small crowd gathered around. I figured that I would give the group a little listen, so I pushed my way to the front of the mob with a few friends of mine and waited for the group to come out. Not dressed in their science-fiction-ridden outfits, they looked like standard metalheads; longish hair, the frontman had a goatee, the drummer with his pretty large setup. Typical.
Until Thomas Drinnen, the group's lead guitarist and vocalist, came out and announced the group's next song, entitled "The Grand Ascension". They began to play, their drummer laying out a nice little groove, and what happened next completely broke the feeling of doubt I had retained before; this burst of energy just overwhelmed everything in a 20-foot radius; the first chord of the song completely shattered reality at the moment, those keys just carrying me into a realm I hadn't known before. It was incredible.
Then came the vocals of Thomas, his interesting accent keeping me involved, his small little monologues in the verses and his powerful vocals filling the air; his brother, Daniel, harmonized so perfectly with him, in such a natural way, that I couldn't even blink while watching.
Now that my rambling is over with, that's how I discovered this band. I picked up their CD "Autocratopolis" after a small internal debate about whether to get "Universe EP" or the previously mentioned. I stuck around and listened to the rest of their performance, and after saying goodbyes to my pals, I rushed home and popped the album in my speakers.
The album begins with a slow, minor-key synthesizer part, and leads into a drum accompaniment. The keys keep playing their chords while the groove keeps going. Suddenly, the drum part becomes faster, playing triplets on the double bass, leading into a release in which the guitars dash in, playing power chords in a warm, deep, fat tone that you can't forget. The triplets pick up again with palm-muted guitars, and a final chord is played to sum up this opener.
Suddenly, in the second track, the mood changes entirely! The drums become frantic and the guitars dissonant. The verse picks up, and two layered voices of Thomas speak the lyrics, shortly after turning to a small taste of the chorus. The song continues in a switching off of the duo Thomas and Daniel's vocals, and let me tell you... Thomas has a range, and he uses it well with his alternating powerful yells of pure notage and his story-telling mid-range voice. It's very well suited to his lyrical style and the feeling of the music.
After this metal-laden track, the track "Streetlight" comes on; a slower, piano-driven track, that's reminiscent of what you may think of as English jazz. A happy, carefree chord of pure power is rang out, and with the general melody of the song following, all you really want to do is go out and prance in an Irish street, or... something. After an extremely high, effortless note from Thomas, this feeling of happiness is replaced quickly with the mysterious jazz again.
The track ends with a frankly frightening chord, and we're ripped into "Never felt so dreadful", a dark metal track, that utilizes the band's viking influence and pretty much the most amazing high D ever sang by a male tenor about a minute and fifteen seconds into the track, with "You'll see the GOD I am to be!". The song is doomy and sadistic for the first few minutes, then lapses into a major key, abruptly ending its short happy reign with the lines,
"I know we'll be together...forever..."
The Grand Ascension is next, and is a great metal tune, with some of the album's best lyrics, Thomas speaking... strangely comically the words, "Then again... I could be wrong, after all, they say that what goes up must come down... do they not?!" The singing on this is unbelievable.
"But I find the sun at times to be a sly deceptive light, as when the winter rolls in under his halo of lies..."
To describe the rest of the album would take a lot of time and space, so I'll just say this in conclusion.
PROS:
The lyrics are really great, and good for those who like formal literature. It reads a lot like a book.
The vocal harmonies are incredible.
The melodies are intriguing and powerful. It's impossible to get bored with this album.
Every member knows what fits into the mood of the song.
In regards to mood, each song does that very well. The atmosphere of the portion of the concept album that these songs describe is very easily noticed, and you become enveloped in them extremely quickly.
The album artwork is great, and the the pictures that go with the lyrics are fun to look at while listening to the songs.
The band is proficient at mixing a lot of different sounds, and it works VERY well for them.
The album is mixed very well (Except for the bass drum, ugh.)
CONS:
The double bass is WAY too loud.
The drums can get repetitive on the heavier parts of the album.
Other than that, this album was an incredible journey through the fusion of style, the atmosphere it provides, and the band's general genius. It's going to be hard to top this album with their next full-length release, but I'm sure that these men can do it.
Must-listens;
The Grand Ascension
Streetlight
Barren Winds
Behind the Vast Window
Never Felt so Dreadful
The songs are available on the group's Myspace.
