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In Times of Tyranny

by Tyranny

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1.
Barbarossa 03:35
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2.
Ramses 03:44
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3.
1453 Konstantinopel 05:41
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4.
Stählerne Särge 04:40
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about

An embossed slipcase? For a band's debut EP? And no, it's not good enough to deserve that attention. 'In Times Of Tyranny' certainly has its curious points (sporadic clean/spoken vocals, a strange edge of melodic German black metal amidst the death/thrash, winding song structures, etc.) but it's not altogether something to get worked up over. Tyranny plays a strange variety of death/thrash with a melodic edge (which comes out most fully on 'Ramses'); the thrash is a fusion of Teutonic with Bay Area and the death metal is like a modern, streamlined Possessed. A certain edge of black metal in the tremolo riffing is present as well, but as this music has so little in the way of black metal feel it would be hard to argue that it's a significant influence. Throw some strange rock'n'roll on top and you have an EP that's certainly different from the norm.

Different but not really excellent; the way some of these elements are juxtaposed is clumsy and amateurish. The riffs are similarly haphazard; for every excellent melodic passage you have riffs that begin in a promising manner before incoherently fizzling out halfway through. This is Tyranny's first release, but apparently the band has been around since 1998, and I have a feeling that these songs have been cooking away a little too long, resulting in music with a very overwritten feel. This is one of the few cases where I think stripping down the compositions would be to the benefit of the band as a whole. It's clear that Tyranny is attempting at something somewhat ambitious here; the way the bass sticks out, the very precise and amorphous lead guitar, the long, linear song structure- they all point to a band that's trying to reach for something unique and somewhat bizarre. Admittedly it does work sometimes; when Tyranny is on, they're really on, cranking out some really amazing riffs and overall compositions sometimes, but these moments are just few and far enough between that it's hard to wholeheartedly recommend this.

'In Times Of Tyranny' certainly has its good points, but those are tempered heavily enough by the sheer weirdness of the band to make this a rather questionable purpose for most people. If you want to hear some death/thrash that's definitely on the experimental side, this wouldn't be a terrible investment, but if you want something that's sure to please, this is one to skip. Tyranny has some chops, clearly, but the songwriting needs to be reigned in and a more precise voice needs to be found before they can really play in the big leagues.

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released December 28, 2009

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EwigesEisRecords Germany

Underground Black Metal label and mailorder from Germany since 1999, musical consistently without compromising, unique visions and extreme expressive black art.

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