| CD REVIEW Myrath |
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Band : Myrath Hold the press! What’s this? A Sympho-Prog Metal act from Tunisia of all places!? Oh boy, let’s get down an dirty, and check out this band’s history right-away! Aged only 13 at the time, guitarist Malek Ben Arbia formed Myrath’s precursor X-Tazy in 2001 with his two childhood friends (both only 14 then) Oualid Issaoui (guitar) and Fahmi Chakroun (drums) from the Tunis suburb Ez-Zahra. They then recruited singer Tarek Idouani and bassist Zaher Ben Hamoudi, and went about covering songs by bands from the realm of Blues, Heavy Metal, and Death Metal during the first two years of their existence, playing the occasional local gig. In 2003 they are joined by Elyes Bouchoucha (who’d just graduated from Tunis’ Conservatoire National De Musique – in later days, he would also become a member of Out Of Body Experience, and guest for Aeon Zen) on keyboards and vocals to replace the exiting Idouani, and the band turns most of their covers onto their favourite band, Symphony X. The Summer of 2004 saw a change at the drum position when the band recruited Saief Ouhibi. In early 2005 the band decided to start composing their own songs, and already in March they released their self-produced full-length Double Face on home territory only. Meant as a demo from a band with an obvious Symphony X influence, these first recordings nevertheless showed very promissing songwriting skills (for which Arbia remains the main responsible) from students still in their teens. March 24, 2006 became a turnpoint in the band’s career. Playing support to Robert Plant and Adagio at the Roman amphitheater in Cathage, they get acquainted with Adagio’s strongly impressed keyboardist Kevin Codfert. Then a series of events (Arbia’s successful graduation from France’s prestigious guitar school M.I.A. in July, the joining of experienced bassist Anis Jouini in September), coupled with Codfert’s support, incite the band to pursue a more international career. They started by changing their name to Myrath (meaning “legacy”), and then in December 2006 recorded their album Hope with Codfert as sound engineer/ producer. Released in September 2007 by French label Brennus Music, the album (the material of which now showed a North-African Arab influence along with the Sympho Prog of their later years) gained high praise from the media (it was voted “Album Of the Year” by 2 American webzines and “Album Of The Week” by several major US webzines as well as several major radio stations). The album’s success put the band on a higher level and paved the way towards several prestigious European festivals (among which Norway’s Metal Rock Festival, Holland’s Progpower.Eu, and France’s Progsud – which was to be the band’s first performance outside Tunesian territory) including the band in their 2008 editions. However, that would be with their new singer Zaher Zogati (of Pirania and Itrospection repute, and famed to be one of the nicest voices in the scene in Tunesia), whom joined the band in June of 2007. The band set standards real high when it came to writing the material for their official sophomore album, because an old saying says that “the 2nd album either breaks you, or makes you”, but they put standards even higher when it came to distributing their music! Therefore, although Desert Call was already recorded in November of 2008 and completed by June 2009, it took the band several months of negociations more before they could sign licence deals with French major label XIII Bis Records (have a distribution deal with Sony) for Europe, and US’ Nightmare Records for the rest of the world. Weirdly enough, it’s the latter which contacted us for the album’s promotion (which is just as well, since it contains a bonus track…ya-hoo!). At any rate, the album sparkles in splendour! To say Myrath have found their very niche with their mix of Prog Metal enhanced Arab tunes, and Prog tunes enhanced with a balanced Arab & Western orchestration…is an understatement! On top, Zogati frequently bends his really flexible voice into ways typically Arab, and thus enhances the songs even more! If you’re a fan of Prog Metal, or of ethnically influenced Metal, you simply nééd to check out the songs (album opener “Forever And A Day”, and “Madness” off the new album, as well as 3 songs off Hope) the band posted at myspace.com/myrath, as they perfectly illustrate the wonderful music of this band. With 5 songs near or over the 7-minute song length (excelling in the case of “Silent Cries”, which clocks in at 10:43), the 10 songs plus bonus on Desert Call give the listener a near 73-minute trip to times and places where the weather is far warmer than it currently is in Belgium (and most of the Northern hemisphere of Earth’s Globe). As you (might) gather from my rating, I’ve not included Desert Call in a nomination for my 2010 year-lists. Yet, because given half a chance I intend to give the album the additional listening sessions I wasn’t able to give it now, due to an over-load of other albums to be reviewed! Stil, it’s hard to not hear and feel the evident qualities of this classy band, which by the way is the first Metal act to get a record deal! Nice record, eh?! 96/100 Tony. |
