MaYan
Antagonize
11 Track Album
Nuclear Blast
To be released 3rd February 2014
Great Cover!
Written for RamZine
MaYan – Netherlands
Links:
Genre: Symphonic Death Metal
Biography:
Formed 2010 MaYaN is a
Dutch symphonic death metal band founded by vocalist Mark Jansen, keyboardist
Jack Driessen and guitarist Frank Schiphorst. The name of the band was chosen
by Jansen out of his fascination for the ancient Maya civilization. On the 6 September 2013 Nuclear Blast
released a press statement that confirmed that tour members from the first
album Laura Macrì and Henning Basse have become full time members.
Bloodline Forfeit
Indiscriminately invades the senses, possessing clean, scourging and
soprano vocals – this possesses more than just the soul in its grasp. It does
have an old school feel about it due to the clean male vocal, however, it does
twist on occasions but doesn’t quite come through the door of the 21st
century.
Burn Your Witches
A rather predatory track that stalks with unmerciful prowess.
Possesses a strong appeal of melodic enterprise as well as a raucous battering
of rhythmic energy.
Redemption
Festers with an evil intent that gathers up momentum and simply
ravages the aural licking it with choppy keyboard and infectious beatings. The
harsher guttural growls being more appealing to me it has to be said.
Paladins of Deceit
A gnarly brutal swagger of rhythms play out to a suffocating
backdrop of harshness, however the uplifting and haunting symphonic slurry and
ambient high pitched operatic vocal certainly gives it that powerful edge.
Euphoric and extreme - this hits below the proverbial metal belt buckle.
Lone Wolf
Sinisterly engaging as the cruel guttural supreme vocals hit the
aural senses, it builds furiously into a conglomerate of metal symphonic
madness, however the clean vocals really do not do this track justice at all
and I personally think that this track with all its rampaging should shroud
itself in the brutal vocal to get its point across.
Devil in Disguise
A mesmerizing start bursting into a rapacious flurry of symphonic
wonder. Devilishly packed full of hard edged, but similarly melodic
strength. Back to the harsh guttural
vocal that holds so much malevolence this is a feisty track that warrants
further play.
Isano
A beautiful guitar and choppy keyboard notes accompanied by a sweet
haunting female voice not normally heard on a death metal album, but certainly
adds a lot of diversity, and something I wouldn’t normally like but this is
just so perfect it is very hard not to.
Human Sacrifice
Gruff and grisly vocals invade this track with a vengeance. The undertones of keyboards are a superb
touch along with a good battering of strong drum beating – the twists and turns
on the track are superb, with the female vocals making a return with a
maelstrom of serious keyboard outage and strong rapacious riffs is very
appealing – brilliant track!
Enemies of Freedom
With the words “The only thing that stops a bad guy with a gun, is a
good man with a gun!” this track then melts into a powerful onslaught of
savagery. Vocally engaging in more harshness and a run of mesmerizing riffs.
Capital Punishment
A swathe of keyboard swirls endlessly into a void of darkness helped
along with bone crunching guttural pit born growls and haunting female vocals
that would break glass, possesses a solid endeavour to reach its peak of
madness. This track carries you to the edge of oblivion with no escape.
Faceless Spies
Melodic and inspiring it twists one way then the next meandering
into an uplifting and serious run of plaguing keyboards that are allowed to run
rampant and backed with the sumptuous growling vocals. However, the clean
vocals seem to ruin it somewhat as they make their presence felt, be it only
briefly.
To Sum up:
This would be an immense album if it were not for the clean male
vocals that seem to keep it from rising potentially to its goal, keeping it in
the old school frame of the 80’s and not letting it progress fully into the 21st
century which is a real shame. However, the gritty growls and soprano vocals do
work extremely well together and the music is overwhelming with intensity.
With eight members in its sight this will no doubt be a sight for
sore eyes on a stage and plenty to focus on live of that there is no doubt,
providing that the stage would be big enough to hold eight members plus
instruments.
The classical structures are just so powerful and engaging it defies
being in a death metal genre if not for those savage growls that prowl
unmercifully to the invigorating guitars, you may think differently.
The symphonic haunting keyboards are brilliantly executed and really
adds a new depth to the proceedings, making this album worth listening to – for
me personally, it works and would without a doubt have reached ten on the scale
if it had not been for the clean male vocal that tends to weaken the structures
of the tracks and not allowing the album to fully immerse itself with 100%
intensity.
8/10
Track List:
Bloodline Forfeit
Burn Your Witches
Redemption
Paladins of Deceit
Lone Wolf
Devil in Disguise
Isano
Human Sacrifice
Enemies of Freedom
Capital Punishment
Faceless Spies
Members:
Laura Macri – Vocals Soprano
Frank Schiphorst – Guitar
Mark Jansen – Grunts, Screams and Orchestration
Ariën Van Weesenbeek – Drums and Grunts
Rob Van Der Loo – Bass
Henning Basse – Clean Vocals
Jack Driessen – Keyboards, Orchestration and Screams
Merel Bechtold - Guitar
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