Review Summary: Fallemania, Part 9
Krypteria may have one of the strangest career paths of all the bands I’ve ever reviewed: they started as a musical theater group, before turning into a metal band during the symphonic metal boom of the 2000s. Their take on symphonic metal is rather unique, with lots of power metal, barely any operatic vocals, and hints of fallenmania, which was used to very good effect on their third album “Bloodangel’s Cry”.
To give a concrete example of the Krypteria formula: the album opens with “All Systems Go”, which goes from a “Going Under” type of chugging riff before exploding into a countdown in the lyrics and a catchy power metal chorus, all building up to the amazing guitar solo. It’s like the beginning of an adventure, like all great power/symphonic metal bands can write them, or at least, a great pump-up track.
Ji-in Cho’s voice is one of the things that make the song work so well. She’s not an operatic diva, sounding instead closer to a rock or even power metal singer, so her voice has a lot of energy and a knack for catchy melodies. But she’s also good at mellow moments, like when she sings in a lower, more melancholic voice in the verses of “Systems” and “Lost”, a sort of ballad with choirs and Fallen-ish riffs and synths, or in a softer, higher voice in “The Promise”, where she’s accompanied by great heavy riffs, strange synths and a lyrical choir. This song is one of the most impressive in the album, from its amazing riffs and choir to its ear-worm of a melody.
Of course, there are some other entertaining tracks, like the heavy and powerful “Time to Bring the Pain”, which has one of the heaviest riffs on the album and some more call and response between Ji-in and the choir. “Scream” is another adrenaline-rising, crazy fast track, where even the pre-chorus is sung really fast. Another of the heaviest tracks is “Out of Tears”, with super-heavy and dark Going Under riffs, melancholic singing and a choir that sounds equally dark singing only those two words: “Mare lacrimarum”. Indeed, the choir is used for nearly every song, just like in Sirenia albums.
Aside from all this sadness, another important theme of the album is rage, like on “I Can’t Breathe”, with its awesome bass line and angry lyrics sung both by Ji-in on her own, and by her and the choir. “Dream Yourself Far Away” has softly sung vocals, contrasted with its really heavy riff. “Sweet Revenge” lives up to its name, being the most bad ass song on the album, with powerful, angry riffs, and angry choirs as well.
But it’s time to get into the weaknesses of the album. The album can get a little repetitive, especially in its lyrics, which are nearly always over-the-top laments about feeling desperate. Even the music can feel repetitive, in the sense that you quickly understand what to expect from it. Ji-in’s voice is not that great, it’s a little too nasal for my taste and in some parts, it doesn’t feel powerful enough for the accompanying music. At least, she knows how to use her voice, giving it lots of energy and emotions. As for individual tracks, “The Night all Angels Cry” is a pretty good ballad but it doesn’t really offer any variation on the heavy riff, melancholic solo vocals and choirs on the chorus formula, aside from a bridge sung really fast. “Somebody Save Me” is the “Bring Me To Life” of the album, and not in a good way, with its simple piano and riffs, and generic lyrics about needing to be saved, not sung with any particular emotion. It’s not terrible, just a very generic ballad. It was my introduction to Krypteria, and it was not a good first impression at all.
However, my first impression was clearly wrong, and I don’t regret listening to this album in full. Krypteria is clearly unique among symphonic metal bands, due to being a lot more rock and power metal-based. Their music has lots of speed and aggression (I called some of the tracks ballads, but they often have a little too much heavy guitar for that), but also a real sense of fun. It’s not perfect, or even exceptionally good. But I don’t mind. Fallenmaniac bands, and symphonic metal, can get very formulaic, so an album that experiments with angrier symphonic metal, heavy riffs like in “Going Under”, choirs like in “Whisper” but also like many Sirenia songs, piano ballads like “My Immortal”, and a classic rock/power metal singer, feels like a real breath of fresh air. This unique formula is certainly the reason why even though Krypteria were never huge, they still had a rather devoted fanbase and will be remembered fondly. I will too, because this album was one of the pleasant discoveries I’ve made in this series where I review not just albums that sound exactly like “Fallen”, but also albums that carry some subtle influence from it.
