Cyhra- New Album 2025/2026

[Xpyro125]

I have the unfortunate burden of sharing that Superman has in fact released. I’m not really sure if it’s because I’m numb to the band or if it’s because the song is mind-numbing, but I just don’t really feel one way or the other towards it overall. If nothing else, it’s not quite Ready to Rumble levels of bad.

I like the chorus’ melody, and it feels like Jake did at least attempt to have a real message with the lyrics (The lyrics themselves are bad, but hey, it’s pretty much just Amaranthe lyrics and vocal melodies). The guitar tone is actually pretty cool, the bass is audible and has a wonderfully thick tone, and the song structure is slightly different from the norm, but that’ll probably make repeated listens more grating.

On the other hand, the lyrics do still suck and lack effort, the drums, while played well, are very clearly sampled and just sound awful, and something about the production is far too muddy with the sound and frequencies— Which is a shame since the mixing is actually surprisingly good. The song is actually almost surprisingly good for post-Letters Cyhra, but it just lacks substance and polish.

Interestingly, they changed record labels (Not surprising after they had to get crowdfunding for visas to tour intentionally and sort of got fucked over by NB a bit, even with No Halos’ and TVT’s success particularly critically), and production was handled by Jake and Euge while mixing was handled solely by Euge— Jacob Hansen isn’t here, they definitely don’t have that NB budget, and it unfortunately shows. Overall, I don’t hate it like I expected to, but maybe they caught me on a good day and it’s actually Ready to Rumble-tier, who knows.

 

[DE4life]

Dear lord. Every time I think Cyhra has reached their lowest point, they somehow get worse. That is absolutely awful. I feel embarrassed for all of them.

 

[Xpyro125]

I just realized that I never actually said anything or even had anything to say about the actual guitar playing. Jesus fuck, that’s actually really bad in retrospect— And to clarify, I don’t mean the playing is bad, it’s just bad that there’s nothing even remotely noteworthy aside from the Ashlight-style bridge, which is thankfully better here than it is there, but… That’s it. There are no riffs, no solos, no real anything. That is so fucking odd for this band.

 

[DE4life]

I mean, this isn't even metal, is it? Even on TVT and Halos you can call the music metal, even if it's generic, bottom of the barrel melodic metal.

Superman, no, not metal. I don't know what it is, but definitely not metal.

 

[eochaid]

Holy shit.

 

[Xpyro125]

Overall, I don’t hate it like I expected to, but maybe they caught me on a good day and it’s actually Ready to Rumble-tier, who knows.

I decided to listen to it again today, and honestly… I feel more or less the same way as I did yesterday, but I think I get why now. This is a decently alright Amaranthe song— It is genuinely an Amaranthe song, just if Elize and a harsh vocalist weren’t here. I could see this actually fitting nicely on Maximalism as a bonus track or something, but like, with that band’s debut’s production I guess. The melodies in the chorus actually do work, it’s surprisingly catchy and pleasant, unlike something like Life is a Hurricane, whose chorus I just didn’t think worked. But the verses definitely remind me of Massive Addictive and Maximalism with those albums’ shift in writing style. The song desperately needs better guitarwork, to not use drum samples, and just better production and mixing in general… But this is kind of just an Amaranthe song.

None of that is to say it’s actually good— It definitely isn’t— but there were tracks like Ready to Rumble, Life is a Hurricane, and If I (Aside from the harmonized riffing) that just seriously lacked substance and good melodies to me. I have a lot less excitement for whatever album’ll be next, just hearing them leaving Nuclear Blast has affected the production and mixing, but I didn’t hate this one the way I probably should’ve. I think especially with Jesper on bass, I’ve made peace with letting go of my hopes and expectations of Letters-quality material coming in the future. Unlike if he left for a while or something, it’s clear where his actual place in the band is, and that’s okay.

I do have to ask what Marcus is doing though— He’s an official member now, but he has zero contribution to this song. What’s the point of getting that second guitarist for more than touring after Jesper steps down if he’s not going to write anything? Interestingly though, Alex didn’t contribute to the song either, it was just Jake, Euge, and Jesper. Jesper definitely only wrote the bassline, so… Yeah, Jake or Euge did the drums 100% digitally. It wasn’t even like them replacing his playing with sampling, which makes sense listening back to it. It very much sounds like a producer’s playing style rather than an actual drummer, which honestly… It actually works, and I can’t shit on it since I just program drums and can’t play then to save my life either. Also begs the question as to why he’s still in the band though. It’s evident that he’s been contributing less and less as the albums have gone on, but… Yeah, he’s just not in this song. I could speak more about the oddities of the whole thing, like how a short-haired Jesper was in the video more than he was in What We Become’s video (And honestly, more than any other member was focused on in this video), the football being kicked up in sync with the drum beat, etc., but I don’t think it really warrants going into. The whole song is a strange case of very much really just being Jake and Euge, and I do wonder if it was actually supposed to have an actual riff or anything at some point. I think one big thing I should say against it that I failed to recognize earlier is that it feels very inorganic. Some people said Suno AI, funnily enough, but there’s enough differences in each verse instrumentally to where it feels like an actual person did write them, just… A producer, most likely Jake. If nothing else, it makes the song actually interesting to dissect.

TL;DR- Jake is very clearly just reliving his glory days from Amaranthe, that’s what this song is. It’s a diet Amaranthe song.

 

[eochaid]

Hero. I couldn't finish the first listening.

 

[DE4life]

Me either, genuinely got about a minute in and gave up.

I'm a fan of the early Amaranthe stuff (self titled and Nexus are my favourite albums from them) and I hate Superman, so idk if they're very similar. For all of the shit Amaranthe gets, they're still identifiably metal, even if some would call it poser metal or pop metal or whatever. Superman has no metal elements. I wouldn't even call it diet Amaranthe as that would still imply something vaguely metal. It's more like diet Bon Jovi.

 

[drawntoblack]

This sounds like a hipster upper middle class bunch of swedes trying to reverse engineer what they (mistakenly) think American music currently is

 

[DE4life]

Funny how Jesper has hooked up with another vocalist wanting to chase the trends and whose lyrics get increasingly juvenile and embarrassing as time goes on. He needs to quit this train wreck and just focus on THE. Does he really want his name to be attached to this garbage?

 

[Xpyro125]

Does he really want his name to be attached to this garbage?

For the less serious answer, considering that he got back in after DotL was done, promoted the merch and whatnot for TVT, and was the most visible in the video for Superman out of all the band members, I guess so.

For the more serious answer, I guess that’s where emotion comes in. I get the feeling he became the bassist as a bit of a compromise since— At least going off what little we do know about his personal life, which the fact that we don’t know much is for the best— Jake seemed to help him out a ton with both his sobriety and divorce in very vulnerable and important parts of his life. I have to imagine that his passion for the band isn’t there quite as much anymore, but his passion for his friend is. I don’t know Jake personally, and what I’ve heard and gathered about whether he has any sort of ego or anything else is nothing short of wildly contradictory, but he and Jesper do seem to be close friends, and I have to imagine he’s still in the band for that reason. While I personally would have left, I’m a nobody; Cyhra is incredibly dependent on Jesper’s name being attached, that much was the reason for the perception surrounding first two albums’ success, and it’s something that has still stuck around and was a concern when Jesper wasn’t in any sort of live shows, promotional material, writing process, discussion the band started, etc. for a while. I get the feeling that Jesper’s head wasn’t in the band at the time, maybe even wanting out, and that had to have worried Jake since it’s something unavoidable on the band’s social media pages— Shit, people were praising Superman still talked about loving Jesper, which… Very contradictory there. If just contributing bass and doing a few things publicly is Jesper’s way of making sure a good number of his friend’s band’s fans stay, then it’s what he did. And mind you, this is all speculation, but it’s just what makes sense to me.

I wish he’d be back on guitars to bring us another album like Letters (Even if it had Jake’s shittier lyrics, I’d still be happier than what we’ve gotten since then), but especially with Marcus in the band as the second guitarist replacing Jesper in that position, the hopes of that are dead and done. So considering that the only other real draw to the band is Jake and Amaranthe, Superman (And probably the next album) pandering to some of the Amaranthe sensibilities just makes sense. I just hope we have some guitarwork with those sensibilities, that would be great.

 

[Xpyro125]

Funny how Jesper has hooked up with another vocalist wanting to chase the trends and whose lyrics get increasingly juvenile and embarrassing as time goes on.

You know, Jake also had dreadlocks for a time… Coincidence? We’ll never know.

 

[Xpyro125]

I really like the guitar tone, but watching this brought up a whole new concern for me: If Jake’s wanted Cyhra to be this arena rock/arena metal band that thrived off of the energy of live performances so badly for the past three albums, then why make the song like this? This is, arguably, the complete inversion of that, with the only guitarwork in the verses being the slightest bit of some in the end of the second. It’s a song that would actually fall apart live and would instead only really hold up well in the studio, something which is completely fucked by not having Jacob Hansen’s level of quality regarding the engineering. As much as I love the energy and melodies of the vocals… I think that it works less and less as a song with each listen, and moreso just as a hollow vessel for Jake’s vocals. I don’t really know what he and Euge really wanted to accomplish with this song, but honestly, I think they failed at it.

I still stand by my opinions in my previous posts, but when the band is barely getting engagement on both the video and on social media (39K views, yes, but nothing substantial even in the comments (41 in a week), likes (<600 in a week) or anything else anywhere else), there’s definitely a problem there. It’s fascinating to see how uniform their view counts and whatnot are from Here To Save You-onward, particularly since that video is the only one not on Nuclear Blast’s channel. It’s clear that outside of their diehard fanbase, everything grew stagnant and just didn’t really see returns when it comes to fan reception after Letters’ release— Even with Nuclear Blast pushing No Halos and TVT as hard as they did with critics and whatnot. I don’t think the band would’ve seen much growth with Nuclear Blast, and for all we know the label terminated their partnership and not the band, but I think moving over to RPM, such a smaller label, was a mistake for their lesser promotion and budget.

If the next album doesn’t end up doing well, I’m not sure if the band’s going to get to do much touring, especially seeing as how they had to rely on crowdfunding for visas when they did have a bigger label. If you only looked at critical reception and comments up until Ashlight’s music video (Which is still a pretty good song imo, even if a ton of people who watched the video disagreed), you’d think the band was thriving. I think they’ve been fading further and further since No Halos, and it’s something that wasn’t as apparent to me for a long time— And I say that because I felt like I was in the minority when it comes to being disappointed with everything since that album.

If nothing else, it’s such a fascinating case study of a band. As sad as it is to say, in spite of the big fanbase Jake has from Amaranthe, it’s clear just how important Jesper in particular was to even the perception of the band’s identity, much less the music that would come from it. I’d say we’re bound to just see passion project-type stuff from here on out, but you guys feel the lack of passion from these guys even more than I do.

 

[Xpyro125]

Actually, it’d be really fucking depressing if the inspiration for Superman was the goddamn tour bus incident. That just feels way too fitting.

 

[eochaid]

There's this thing. Even with the cheesy ridiculous lyrics and vocal melodies, Jake doesn't need the autotunes. This is just a generic pop song with guitars behind so that they pretend to be some kind of metal band.

 

[DE4life]

Normally with a "supergroup" (if we are to consider Cyhra this) you have a group of respected musicians from the same or very similar genres, who have assembled to create something in the same vein as what they are already experienced in. You might have one or two members who are a bit left field, but generally the group has an obvious and stated purpose. The Halo Effect is a good example of this.

For Cyhra, I have no idea what their mission statement is. I don't know what genre they are representing. I don't know what audience they are aiming for. Letters sounds like a different band musically. NHIH and TVT are just nothing metal/arena rock. Superman sounds like a demo for some shitty Bon Jovi clone or something. Nothing after Letters sounds like a band that requires or is using respected musicians. It sounds like a vanity project for Jake - and if that is Cyhra's aim, then sorry Jake, but that's gonna be a small audience that is only going to get smaller with each subpar release.

 

[eochaid]

I reject to even considerate that someone doing those shitty vocals have ever been a fan of metal music in any way. This is just the opposite of what metal represents.

 

[DE4life]

Anders or Jake?

 

[eochaid]

Funnily enough, the use of autotunes in this song is far more insulting than anything that Anders does. Specially since Jake doesn't need it and Anders cannot sing shit without using it.

 

[Xpyro125]

Normally with a "supergroup" (if we are to consider Cyhra this) you have a group of respected musicians from the same or very similar genres, who have assembled to create something in the same vein as what they are already experienced in. You might have one or two members who are a bit left field, but generally the group has an obvious and stated purpose. The Halo Effect is a good example of this.

For Cyhra, I have no idea what their mission statement is. I don't know what genre they are representing. I don't know what audience they are aiming for. Letters sounds like a different band musically. NHIH and TVT are just nothing metal/arena rock. Superman sounds like a demo for some shitty Bon Jovi clone or something. Nothing after Letters sounds like a band that requires or is using respected musicians. It sounds like a vanity project for Jake - and if that is Cyhra's aim, then sorry Jake, but that's gonna be a small audience that is only going to get smaller with each subpar release.

Funnily enough, I do believe I noted Alex’s drumming dropping way the fuck off in No Halos. He’s got a couple moments on TVT, but the sound of the kit was so much worse that I wonder if it’s actually him or just sampling. And while I did find Euge to be just fine on bass from No Halos-onward (And he’s still credited as a bassist even now), not having a defined bassist since Peter’s departure was just disappointing to me. A close friend of mine and I were talking about music last night, most notably Mammoth WVH, discussing how having more than just the core one or two people really serves to enhance creativity and possible sonic directions since having just those core one or two people just makes things a bit formulaic in at least one of those regards. Mind you, we didn’t say that about WVH (We did say that about Cyhra though), he was just in the discussion since he’s going to have a full band for Mammoth 3. Alex and Marcus feel like satellite members, contributing less and less as time goes on in the former’s case, while the latter simply hasn’t gotten to do so.

The most exciting part about Cyhra was that supergroup aspect, the band itself, and how all of these great musicians were amazing as a team. I really do think that everyone brought out the best in each other on Letters, and that’s why No Halos was such a letdown— A vocal minority of commenters on things since TVT have said that they miss how things were in the first two albums (Particularly since Jesper was still on guitar), and I have a bad feeling that that’ll the narrative going forward.

Honestly though, I think they were already going in a bad direction with No Halos, and not because they went heavier or wanted to cater more to the live crowd, that could’ve been done well. It’s just wild to have the realization that if the next album doesn’t do well, we may be doing retrospectives on the band. At the end of the day though, I don’t think we’ll ever truly know how everything went down when it comes to the inner workings of the band, and maybe we shouldn’t. I don’t like the idea of getting parasocial about the band or any of its members, though I do think that the level of which we speak on and speculate here is fine. Some of us were fans of the band, but we don’t like how things changed, and these are the reasons why. Shit just sucks I guess.

Funnily enough, the use of autotunes in this song is far more insulting than anything that Anders does. Specially since Jake doesn't need it and Anders cannot sing shit without using it.

Honestly, fantastic point.