It has been about five years since Kryoburn first slammed on the scene with their debut full-length release, Enigmatic Existence. While it wasn't one of the most prominant and well recepted albums in the Industrial Metal style, there was no denying that the band had a strong sense of who they are and what direction this band would go into. It's been quite a while since we last heard from this band, and for many, the name had been forgotten for quite some time. But, out of nowhere, the New Mexico based act's latest album snuck into many upcoming release lists, taking many by surprise. THree Years Eclipsed may have taken a while, but perhaps that is a good thing, allowing the band to explore their sound and figure out what they wanted to do with this release to offer the most solid recording possible. Right?
Sadly, Three Years Eclipsed is a solid effort, but it doesn't really feel like it was worth the wait, especially as you go through the album and start to pick out some of the obvious influences that rear their heads in the band's material. Kryoburn seem to have a solid grip on the sound off their debut release, and in fact seem to have matured and grown upon that style nicely, making some great tracks throughout the album, such as the heavy, yet very melodic starting track "Broken Hero", which sucks the listener in with it's well timed Industrial intensity and melodic aspects voiled with clean vocals that are soft, yet well fitting to the chorus of the track. However, quickly after this recording, the material starts to really shift and throws you around in a negative manner.
"Event Horizon" makes for a great song, and manages to hold the listener at bay throughout with plenty of changes in the music and well done intensity mixed with melody and harmony where needed, leaving any repetitive elements behind for some a longer track. The problem here is that the obvious influence from Dimmu Borgir's The Serpentine Offering is pretty obvious and often can sound like flat out plagiarism. Then you have the hard hittign "Slaughtered With Lies" which comes out of the chute like a bull seeing red, ready throw you around with a tremendous amount of intensity and fury, at for the first few seconds the listener will be into it until the obvious similarities kick in. Within the few seconds of it's start, there's no denying a tremendous Slipknot atmosphere to the recording, and there are varying influences drug in throughout the rest of the recording such as some Metalcore influences that just seem a little generic, and even some Meshuggah Groove Metal sections near the end of the song. While it destroys any repetition, it's not a fluid song as it constantly changes between those influences, and much more. What's more, that Dimmu Borgir influence carries over into "Introspect", among other influences that feel familiar from Melodic Death Metal acts.
There is also no denying that this album is a very patterned one. Despite the fact that the songs jump around so horribly at times, there exists a predetermined structure through many of the tracks, and it sadly follows the typical scream the verse, sing the chorus routine. There are times where the music does void this by adding extra singing in some bridges, like during "Introspective", but that's about it. Though this aspect of the music does start to get repetitive, the intensity of the music more then makes up for it, as Three Years Eclipsed really just slams into high gear from the start, and many of the tracks just come off heavy, and often crushing with the additional Industrial effects added, though further Industrial synths and sounds can take the atmosphere of the recording in a whole other direction, adding a great deal of astral-sounding ambience to a number of the tracks during the more melodic aspects, which works greatly in favor of the band. All the while these different variances are going on, the bridges work well and manages to keep both styles sounding fluid, though the transition between general leaps in the musical direction are often quite abrupt and don't work out that well.
Three Years Eclipsed is far from a bad effort. There are plenty of intense tracks throughout the recording. But, the problem is that for most of the album, it feel like you're listening to an Industrialized version of The Serpentine Offering by Dimmu Borgir coupled with various other influences. Aside that, it does follow the scream/sing pattern that many bands in the melodic sector of Metal seem to do constantly anymore, and it's a little disheartening. Was it worth the five year wait? Definitely not, and chances are good that wait will affect how people view this album, as it clearly did affect the material the band recorded for it. But, despite it's many flaws, there's still the intensity that each track creates, and it's undeniable that, regardless of how much idolworship may appear on this release, it's still a heavy album that deserves some attention. Just consider yourselves warned.
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