French progressive power metal band ASYLUM PYRE has released a new album entitled “Call Me Inhuman – The Sun – The Fight – Part 5”. This is their fifth album along the way since it was formed in 2003. The album, which was released on March 24 2023 through the Ellie Promotion label, still takes us on their musical path and with no formation changes since 2019. This time the cover artwork was done by Mythrid Art from France, and for the mastering of this album, Mika Jussila from Finland was still entrusted.
As an opener, is the song “Virtual Guns”, the first song that immediately felt a very progressive aura with the chorus on the catchy and bright chorus combined with modern progressive music and heavy gothic metal rhythms but a little brighter.
The second song is titled “Fighters“, a catchy song and has many musical elements including avant-garde, symphonic, melodic and heavy metal and progressive elements of course which are neatly packaged to make this song very complex and comfortable to enjoy with a light refrain for singalong.
Followed by a song called “The True Crown (I Seek Your War)” which begins with an acoustic guitar and slowly the tempo increases and gets heavier with Ombeline Duprat‘s powerful vocals and accompanied by a choir behind and the voice of guitarist Johann Cadot can be heard occasionally provide vocals in this song and album. Entering the middle of the song, the tempo of the song is getting faster and more powerful with the accompaniment of guitar melodies and the non-stop thumping of drums and the fast twisting of guitar melodies that accompanies it until the end of the song.
The song “Happy Deathday“, opens with the oldiest pop vocal character with a bit of reggae, and immediately the song changes with the nuances of fast death metal music combined with Ombeline’s powerful vocals and growl vocals faintly heard with the accompaniment of melodic guitars and heavy rhythms, but the music changed when he entered the solo part with a cheerful and catchy guitar melody.
“There, I Could Die” is the fourth single from this album, this song tends to feel symphonic and progressive metal, a song with orchestral accompaniment and catchy and light melodies from start to finish. This song will be very easy to keep ringing and sticking in our heads all day long. Continue to the song “Sand Paths” with the contortion of the guitar and the beat of the drums immediately starting the sixth song on this album, Ombeline’s vocals enter solemnly, full of emotion and melancholy, continuing with the choirs on the chorus which will make us always sing along, in this song also occasionally incorporate elements of soprano vocals that accompany far behind.
The seventh track “The Nowhere Dance” is a song with drum beats and rhythm guitar and vocals that will lift our adrenaline and enthusiasm and invite us to sing and dance along. The tempo is getting faster and more powerful when entering the solo part and getting faster towards the end of the song.
“A Teacher, A Scientist & A Diplomat” when I read the title of the song I was a little surprised, maybe for me these words are quite unique in the world of power metal music, but after listening to the music my surprise disappeared for a moment because I was sedated by the music. The music is unique but very catchy, full of melodies and light heavy metal guitar rhythms that will make us always sway along with the tempo of this song. But I don’t know why, when I heard the chorus I immediately remembered the song “The Sage, The Fool, The Sinner” by the German power metal pioneer, HELLOWEEN.
Then the song “Underneath Heartskin” begins with a guitar melody and Ombeline’s vocals which are very operatic and emotional but suddenly change when the sound of drums is heard. The vocalist’s voice sometimes soars high with shrill screams full of emotion accompanied by the slow tempo of the song. The tenth track is “The Mad Fiddler” with a slightly more thrash but melodic sound and more powerful vocals and heavy metal guitar rhythms. I can categorize this song as more typical of powerful heavy metal melodic music which will lift your spirits especially in the solo part which is filled with heavy power metal guitar melodies and the shrill and high screams of vocalist Ombeline.
The song “Joy” is a song that is very unique and complex, how could it not be, a song that begins with a thumping rhythm guitar and a slow tempo tends to feel more like gothic metal music by incorporating avant-garde and modern elements. Then the tempo changed suddenly as it entered the middle of the song, vocals and black metal drum beats were heard, but not long after that the song changed to melodic metal music and the choir accompanied it until the end of the song.
As the closing song “Call Me Inhuman” is a fairly short song, which is also the title of this album brings us to the nuances of folk metal music with female vocal duet Ombeline and male vocals and guitarist, Johann.
Overall, the album “Call Me Inhuman – The Sun – The Fight – Part 5” is a very complete album that combines various kinds of musical genres which are packaged very nicely and neatly so as to produce a very fresh and unique output. With a near-perfect production quality, adding value to the quality of this album and to be able to enter the ranks of high-class music in the realm of metal music. For those of you fans of bands like; AMBERIAN DAWN, BATTLE BEAST, AFTER FOREVER, LACUNA COIL, I’m sure you will love this album.
Tracklist
1. Virtual Guns
2. Fighters
3. The True Crown (I Seek Your War)
4. Happy Deathday
5. There, I Could Die
6. Sand Paths
7. The Nowhere Dance
8. A Teacher, a Scientist and a Diplomat
9. Underneath Heartskin
10. The Mad Fiddler
11. Joy
12. Call Me Inhuman
Line up:
Ombeline “OXY” Duprat – Vocals
Johann “JAE” Cadot – Vocals, Rythm Guitars, Keyboards
Pierre-Emmanuel “WIK” Pélisson – Guitars
Fabien “HED” Mira – Bass
Thomas “KAS” Calegari – Drums
Score:
Music: 7/10
Production: 9/10
Website: http://www.asylumpyre.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/asylumpyre
