I think they purposely chose those singles for surprise and suspense purposes. The proof will be in the pudding. Just 2 more days.
New Cyhra Album 2018-2019
- Thread starter galvanized
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Yeah I could see them saying something “Yeah we were saving the best for last” or “Here’s a little surprise for you guys”.
In the metal world singles don’t mean shit anyway. They probably chose the radio crap for the singles like the label told them to. The rest of the album will be full of bangers.
In the metal world singles don’t mean shit anyway. They probably chose the radio crap for the singles like the label told them to. The rest of the album will be full of bangers.
From what I read, all those reviewers are non-authoritative and ignorant of metal. They might not recognize good music when they hear it. So I’m not going to trust them at all.
If AngryMetalGuy did a review of it, that would be authoritative. But some random Japanese otaku person’s music blog doesn’t count.
If AngryMetalGuy did a review of it, that would be authoritative. But some random Japanese otaku person’s music blog doesn’t count.
Stay With Me and All The Pain are highlights of the latest IF album as far as I’m concerned. A shitty review might sweep them under “soft” or whatever. I’ll reserve my judgement for when the album actually hits.
One more day, then we will know the truth about this album.
Was Euge a liar?
Is the album full of bangers?
Are Cyhra “listen-bait” spammers?
Was Euge a liar?
Is the album full of bangers?
Are Cyhra “listen-bait” spammers?
Aseptic.
First impression.
Good sound. Nicely done. No emotion. Aseptic.
It has many good riffs that are inmediately discarded to introduce some Jake melodic boring generic line. That's mostly what this album is about. There are some times when I think they're going wild. And then, they just stop and go back to the generic melody.
The best songs so far, the acoustic versions that, amazingly, sound more metal, just talking about Jakes' lines, than the electric versions.
It's the kind of album that I discard because I find the vocals uninteresting. Like Amaranthe's or whatever other band comes to mind.
First impression.
Good sound. Nicely done. No emotion. Aseptic.
It has many good riffs that are inmediately discarded to introduce some Jake melodic boring generic line. That's mostly what this album is about. There are some times when I think they're going wild. And then, they just stop and go back to the generic melody.
The best songs so far, the acoustic versions that, amazingly, sound more metal, just talking about Jakes' lines, than the electric versions.
It's the kind of album that I discard because I find the vocals uninteresting. Like Amaranthe's or whatever other band comes to mind.
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First impressions.
Out Of My Life - 4/10 - already discussed before. Nothing technically wrong with the song, but it's incredibly generic and the band are capable of way more than this.
No Halos in Hell - 6/10 - intro reminds me a little of the title track of the first album, nice and heavy. Verses and chorus are pretty average. There's a really good section from around 2:45 for about thirty seconds with Euge working the guitar.
Battle From Within - 7/10 - also already discussed. I don't mind it.
I Am the One - 6/10 - I quite like the opening to this one. For once the electronics work well with the guitars. Not so much in the verses, which sound like an Amaranthe song. Chorus nothing special. Some good guitarwork and drumming outside of the verses and chorus.
Bye Bye Forever - 5/10 - really stupid song title. Almost beats Power Quest's "I Don't Believe in Friends Forever" as lamest metal song title. Jake is almost rapping the verses which is a bit weird. His voice doesn't really lend itself to that. Chorus is kind of catchy but hard to take "bye bye foreverrrr" seriously. There's a really nice acoustic passage around the 2:40 mark which is very reminiscent of old-school IF. It's the best part of the song by far.
Dreams Gone Wrong - 7/10 alright, this is a bit better. Song starts off with Jake's vocals over some keys, then some nice riffs kick the song off properly. Verses don't have much to them. Chorus is the same thing you've already heard on every song so far, just with a slightly faster tempo.
Lost in Time - 5/10 - a power metal ballad. Doesn't come close to touching Closure or even Inside a Lullaby, both of which are far superior to this imo. Unless you really wanna hear Jake croon "ohhhHhHhHhohHhhH" into your ears you can skip this one and not miss anything.
Kings Tonight - 5/10 - this one comes roaring out of the gates with a very welcome dose of energy. It's still just the same shit you've heard before by this point though, with some really stupid sounding electronics thrown in which frankly ruin the song for me.
I Had Your Back - 5/10 - I've stopped caring at this point. It sounds the fucking same as all of the other mid-tempo borefests on this album.
Blood Brothers - 6/10 - want more power metal from Cyhra? Well, here you go. Doing PM but not sounding as good as other bands in the genre who do it way better. Euge is throwing a bunch of riffs and guitar wankery around here without it ever really amounting to anything decent.
Hit Me - 6/10 - finally, finally we get some solid, powerful riffs. Sounds like something that could have opened an IF song from the STYE/CC era. Unfortunately the verses slow everything down with a bunch of electronics and chugga chugga shit. Chorus is fucking awful. Some more really nice guitarwork midway through the song. It's a shame the chorus utterly trashes this song, as otherwise I could easily have given it a 7 or 7.5.
Man of Eternal Rain - 7.5/10 - sounds like it could have come off LtM, which at this point is a good thing. Once again the intro is solid, there are some cool sounding IF-esque riffs (although they are basically just a harder version of the Battles From Within riffs). Chorus is fine, one of the better ones on the album. The song ends strong with some really good guitarwork and drumming. This is probably the best song on the album.
Kings and Queens - 7/10 - generic LtM style song. It's okay, better than a lot of the previous songs, but just another decent-ish mid-tempo song. Much like the previous song the guitar gets some time to shine halfway through the song.
Lies - 6/10 - more mid-tempo averageness with a simple, slightly annoying chrous. There's a terrible electronic part starting at about 02:52 which sounds horrible. I have no idea what they were thinking with that. It's a bit like the weird electronic part in Here to Save You, but worse.
I haven't really mentioned Jake's vocals, but that's mainly because they're just there. He doesn't really challenge himself on this album. He sounds fine but less remarkable than he did on LtM. At least on the debut album he changed it up with some stuff in higher and lower register. He sounds the same pretty much the whole way through this album and it gets old fast.
At this point I'm confused about what Cyhra's identity is. Sometimes they sound like Amaranthe-lite. The chorus of "Hit Me" for example is straight out of an Amaranthe song, but Amaranthe would do it better. Sometimes they sound like a pseudo-power metal band but Jake's vocals don't really work for that kind of music. Sometimes they sound like Modern IF but again the vocals don't really work for that style either.
Overall I definitely prefer Letters to Myself, by a long stretch. No Halos in Hell is okay at times but it brings nothing new to the table. It's the kind of album you listen to a few times then forget about. It's pretty disappointing overall, the band sound like they're already on autopilot just two albums into their career. LtM was formulaic at times but there was still a ton of heart across the album. No Halos in Hell is generic, uninspired, lacking focus and, honestly, often boring.
Overall I'd give it a 6/10. The musicmanship across the record is perfectly competent and in certain parts really good, but there's nowhere near enough variety or fresh ideas here. For an album so long in the making it's surprisingly bland. Euge has his moments to shine here and there, but it's mostly Jake E feat. others. I don't hear much Jesper influence on this record at all to be honest, except maybe that brief acoustic passage in Bye Bye Forever and parts of Man of Eternal Rain. Other than Man of Eternal Rain there isn't a single song I'd rate higher than a 7, and I think I'm even being a bit generous with those ratings.
Personally this isn't the direction I wanted Cyhra to go in. It's not interesting to me and based on this album I'm not going to go to their live show in London. I'd rather hear them play LtM from start to finish than listen to anything off the new album, which I assume will dominate a good portion of their set. I get the feeling this review won't be going onto their FB page
If you liked the previous album the songs I've rated 7 or above might be worth checking out as they retain that LtM sound. The rest of the album doesn't have anything to offer though, imo at least.
Out Of My Life - 4/10 - already discussed before. Nothing technically wrong with the song, but it's incredibly generic and the band are capable of way more than this.
No Halos in Hell - 6/10 - intro reminds me a little of the title track of the first album, nice and heavy. Verses and chorus are pretty average. There's a really good section from around 2:45 for about thirty seconds with Euge working the guitar.
Battle From Within - 7/10 - also already discussed. I don't mind it.
I Am the One - 6/10 - I quite like the opening to this one. For once the electronics work well with the guitars. Not so much in the verses, which sound like an Amaranthe song. Chorus nothing special. Some good guitarwork and drumming outside of the verses and chorus.
Bye Bye Forever - 5/10 - really stupid song title. Almost beats Power Quest's "I Don't Believe in Friends Forever" as lamest metal song title. Jake is almost rapping the verses which is a bit weird. His voice doesn't really lend itself to that. Chorus is kind of catchy but hard to take "bye bye foreverrrr" seriously. There's a really nice acoustic passage around the 2:40 mark which is very reminiscent of old-school IF. It's the best part of the song by far.
Dreams Gone Wrong - 7/10 alright, this is a bit better. Song starts off with Jake's vocals over some keys, then some nice riffs kick the song off properly. Verses don't have much to them. Chorus is the same thing you've already heard on every song so far, just with a slightly faster tempo.
Lost in Time - 5/10 - a power metal ballad. Doesn't come close to touching Closure or even Inside a Lullaby, both of which are far superior to this imo. Unless you really wanna hear Jake croon "ohhhHhHhHhohHhhH" into your ears you can skip this one and not miss anything.
Kings Tonight - 5/10 - this one comes roaring out of the gates with a very welcome dose of energy. It's still just the same shit you've heard before by this point though, with some really stupid sounding electronics thrown in which frankly ruin the song for me.
I Had Your Back - 5/10 - I've stopped caring at this point. It sounds the fucking same as all of the other mid-tempo borefests on this album.
Blood Brothers - 6/10 - want more power metal from Cyhra? Well, here you go. Doing PM but not sounding as good as other bands in the genre who do it way better. Euge is throwing a bunch of riffs and guitar wankery around here without it ever really amounting to anything decent.
Hit Me - 6/10 - finally, finally we get some solid, powerful riffs. Sounds like something that could have opened an IF song from the STYE/CC era. Unfortunately the verses slow everything down with a bunch of electronics and chugga chugga shit. Chorus is fucking awful. Some more really nice guitarwork midway through the song. It's a shame the chorus utterly trashes this song, as otherwise I could easily have given it a 7 or 7.5.
Man of Eternal Rain - 7.5/10 - sounds like it could have come off LtM, which at this point is a good thing. Once again the intro is solid, there are some cool sounding IF-esque riffs (although they are basically just a harder version of the Battles From Within riffs). Chorus is fine, one of the better ones on the album. The song ends strong with some really good guitarwork and drumming. This is probably the best song on the album.
Kings and Queens - 7/10 - generic LtM style song. It's okay, better than a lot of the previous songs, but just another decent-ish mid-tempo song. Much like the previous song the guitar gets some time to shine halfway through the song.
Lies - 6/10 - more mid-tempo averageness with a simple, slightly annoying chrous. There's a terrible electronic part starting at about 02:52 which sounds horrible. I have no idea what they were thinking with that. It's a bit like the weird electronic part in Here to Save You, but worse.
I haven't really mentioned Jake's vocals, but that's mainly because they're just there. He doesn't really challenge himself on this album. He sounds fine but less remarkable than he did on LtM. At least on the debut album he changed it up with some stuff in higher and lower register. He sounds the same pretty much the whole way through this album and it gets old fast.
At this point I'm confused about what Cyhra's identity is. Sometimes they sound like Amaranthe-lite. The chorus of "Hit Me" for example is straight out of an Amaranthe song, but Amaranthe would do it better. Sometimes they sound like a pseudo-power metal band but Jake's vocals don't really work for that kind of music. Sometimes they sound like Modern IF but again the vocals don't really work for that style either.
Overall I definitely prefer Letters to Myself, by a long stretch. No Halos in Hell is okay at times but it brings nothing new to the table. It's the kind of album you listen to a few times then forget about. It's pretty disappointing overall, the band sound like they're already on autopilot just two albums into their career. LtM was formulaic at times but there was still a ton of heart across the album. No Halos in Hell is generic, uninspired, lacking focus and, honestly, often boring.
Overall I'd give it a 6/10. The musicmanship across the record is perfectly competent and in certain parts really good, but there's nowhere near enough variety or fresh ideas here. For an album so long in the making it's surprisingly bland. Euge has his moments to shine here and there, but it's mostly Jake E feat. others. I don't hear much Jesper influence on this record at all to be honest, except maybe that brief acoustic passage in Bye Bye Forever and parts of Man of Eternal Rain. Other than Man of Eternal Rain there isn't a single song I'd rate higher than a 7, and I think I'm even being a bit generous with those ratings.
Personally this isn't the direction I wanted Cyhra to go in. It's not interesting to me and based on this album I'm not going to go to their live show in London. I'd rather hear them play LtM from start to finish than listen to anything off the new album, which I assume will dominate a good portion of their set. I get the feeling this review won't be going onto their FB page
If you liked the previous album the songs I've rated 7 or above might be worth checking out as they retain that LtM sound. The rest of the album doesn't have anything to offer though, imo at least.
Jake does great singing in the album. It's just... Boring. Repetitive. Predictable. Lacks strength. Lacks innovation. It doesn't have his own trademark. What I mean with this is that, apart from his voice there's nothing that makes him unique. There are so many singers that can xome with vocal melodies like that that is just boring. The ballad was highly praised and is a meh. And is his own.
If it hadn't the name Jesper behind it I wouldn't even have listened to this album.
At this point, I gotta agree with ciko about Anders uniqueness. I mean, the guy is an incompetent singer and an average frontman, but he has his own style.
If it hadn't the name Jesper behind it I wouldn't even have listened to this album.
At this point, I gotta agree with ciko about Anders uniqueness. I mean, the guy is an incompetent singer and an average frontman, but he has his own style.
10:20 something... The song actually sounds quite decent with the proper guitar sound and without vocals. Pretty much if they went metal instead of pop with this same basic idea, it would have been so much better.
Agreed, his singing is technically good but it's just not very interesting. There are very few vocal hooks that really hit the mark for me. He was better on the last album.
I get the feeling Jesper won't be associated with Cyhra for that much longer. As I said in my review, I don't hear much Jesper in this album at all. Just Jake and Euge.
Anders is a unique vocalist, there was never any question about that. He's also a great frontman in a live setting. He engages with the audience, he's funny, he's energetic and although his vocals can be hit and miss you can tell he's always putting his all into it.
Jake is restraining himself too much. He's trying to sound perfect but sounds much less genuine than he did on the last album. I don't know why he's gone backwards but he's less interesting on this album than he was on LtM.
I'll do a "review" later... But just for the record - this has to be the musical disappointment of the year.
Elementary school band with a cheap keyboard could make a more engaging material.
Oh, and I got to agree with DE4life. I can't hear much Jesper on this one. Solos are definitely all Euge. Songwriting sounds like Jake trying to give birth to Amaranthe-Halloween bastard. Maybe a few stray IF riffs here and there.
Elementary school band with a cheap keyboard could make a more engaging material.
Oh, and I got to agree with DE4life. I can't hear much Jesper on this one. Solos are definitely all Euge. Songwriting sounds like Jake trying to give birth to Amaranthe-Halloween bastard. Maybe a few stray IF riffs here and there.
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I definitely see a lot in common, in riffs and melodies, between this album and the previous one. They even stated that Jesper and Jake set the foundations for the songs.
Sorry but I've never seen that. Neither attending a show or in a live dvd or leaked shows. Not compared to other frontmen. Maybe that's a matter of perception.
Sorry but I've never seen that. Neither attending a show or in a live dvd or leaked shows. Not compared to other frontmen. Maybe that's a matter of perception.
I need some time to go through this album because there are so many tracks. And I haven’t digested it yet.
Initial reaction is this album is very frustrating.
Half the songs seem boring. That’s fine, many albums are like that I guess.
The other half of the songs have good to AMAZING intros that are immediately thrown away in 10-30s for some calm and lame verse singing. Some also have really cool solos and bridge parts.
Not to be crass but the best description is that many of these songs are giving a serious case of “blue balls”.
If you took a sound clip of the first 10s of every song (at least half of them) you would think the album would be metal album of the year.
If you took a sound clip of every verse and chorus they would essentially sound identical and lame.
Euge and Jesper tease us so fucking hard with some awesome metal riffs and cool melodic parts. But Jake’s voice doesn’t have the power or strength to compete. Because this is Jake’s band, they have to tone it down so he doesn’t get outshone.
The only time Jake stood out to me was on I Am the One around 0:39. There was a key change or something that happened and all of a sudden I was like “damn I’m feeling it”.
This album is so formulaic it’s crazy. Cool intro, same piano backed verse, power chord chorus, repeat cool intro (if we are lucky), etc. So many songs have patterns that trigger exact memories of Letters to Myself.
HIGHLIGHTS
I Am the One — Strong guitars, best vocals on the album. I don’t actually like this song the most, just saying that I think this is the song where the vocals stand out the most.
Dreams Gone Wrong — Best overall song. Energy, guitars.
Kings Tonight — Intro is great. High energy.
Hit Me — the intro is AMAZING! Seriously influenced by Kalmah with the galloping keyboard(? Or is that a 3rd guitar) going on. Cool solo part, enough time to develop something.
Blood Brothers — This song has a different vibe than all the others. I will come back and visit this one.
Bottom line: A lot of cool guitar parts but Jake is the showcase and I’m just not a fan of his style. All the criticisms about late IF composition are valid here. Same formula, just singing instead of screaming.
Initial reaction is this album is very frustrating.
Half the songs seem boring. That’s fine, many albums are like that I guess.
The other half of the songs have good to AMAZING intros that are immediately thrown away in 10-30s for some calm and lame verse singing. Some also have really cool solos and bridge parts.
Not to be crass but the best description is that many of these songs are giving a serious case of “blue balls”.
If you took a sound clip of the first 10s of every song (at least half of them) you would think the album would be metal album of the year.
If you took a sound clip of every verse and chorus they would essentially sound identical and lame.
Euge and Jesper tease us so fucking hard with some awesome metal riffs and cool melodic parts. But Jake’s voice doesn’t have the power or strength to compete. Because this is Jake’s band, they have to tone it down so he doesn’t get outshone.
The only time Jake stood out to me was on I Am the One around 0:39. There was a key change or something that happened and all of a sudden I was like “damn I’m feeling it”.
This album is so formulaic it’s crazy. Cool intro, same piano backed verse, power chord chorus, repeat cool intro (if we are lucky), etc. So many songs have patterns that trigger exact memories of Letters to Myself.
HIGHLIGHTS
I Am the One — Strong guitars, best vocals on the album. I don’t actually like this song the most, just saying that I think this is the song where the vocals stand out the most.
Dreams Gone Wrong — Best overall song. Energy, guitars.
Kings Tonight — Intro is great. High energy.
Hit Me — the intro is AMAZING! Seriously influenced by Kalmah with the galloping keyboard(? Or is that a 3rd guitar) going on. Cool solo part, enough time to develop something.
Blood Brothers — This song has a different vibe than all the others. I will come back and visit this one.
Bottom line: A lot of cool guitar parts but Jake is the showcase and I’m just not a fan of his style. All the criticisms about late IF composition are valid here. Same formula, just singing instead of screaming.
After listening to the acoustic version, I’m going to double down on this statement. The vocals are amazing and the most powerful and interesting that I’ve heard from any Cyhra song. Acoustic has better vocals than the “normal” but both are good.
Yes the whole “I Am The One” part is repetitive and annoying, but ignoring that this is a very well composed song.
Imagine if the song about his brother was like this. Would’ve been considered a 10/10 and gone viral.
Also I’ve gotta say that the solo part of the electric version has very strong Joe Satriani vibes which is very impressive considering he’s a literal virtuoso. A little short but has a good feeling.
I think you’re right. These versions have a lot more passion, vocal fry, just sounds so much better. This is how he should always be singing. Sounds a lot more masculine and strong. And real, genuine.
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