Review of Mystic Prophecy - Regressus

Mystic Prophecy hails from that finest-of-genres that Europe has an over-abundance of, but we here in America have close to none: power/speed metal. While there is not too much that sets this band apart from the rest of the power metal pack, there are many things here worth listening to, and in this time when there is seemingly a lack of good "classic" metal, "Regressus" is quite a welcome tantalization of my eardrums. The best thing about this album is quite simply the guitar work. It is dead on in every way, if I didn't know any better I would say that guitarist Gus G is a cyborg from the sheer exactitude of his precision-tuned digits along the frets. It is all surprisingly heavy, but then again not that surprising if you think about this band as a speedmetal band rather than power metal. Riffing is powerful and well executed, nice song structures and incredible solos make for some great songs. Drumming in speedmetal is something that gets overlooked time after time, but in all cases the drumming is excellent, and Mystic Prophecy's Dennis Ekdahl is no exception. My main complaint about "Regressus" is the fact that most of the choruses sound SO similar. Compare the choruses on "Lords of Pain" and "In Your Sins", the are almost exactly the same! You literally can click on the exact same point in the song (about 1:15 into) and it sounds like it's the same song. You can do the same thing with "Calling From Hell" and "Forgotten Soul", except this time hit around the 1:13 mark. The final three tracks seem to all have the same chorus as well! It really began to wear on me as the album went along, singer Roberto Dimitri Liapakis hits the EXACT same note in the EXACT same way over and over again. kinda repetitive. While not a bad singer by any sense, it just gets annoying to hear the same thing nine or so times in one album. For this reason alone, I lowered my score of the songwriting, which is a shame because so many nice riffs and melodies are interspersed throughout the album. If this were Germany, I'd have 15 other bands that sound exactly like Mystic Prophecy waiting in line at the powerspeed depot for their chance to shine. But since I write this review from Silicon Valley, where overly-technical death metal and crappy hardcore seem to be all the rage nowadays, Mystic Propehcy's "Regressus" is quite the welcome sound. We are in somewhat of a speedmetal drought at this point in time, so the fact that many songs here sound similar (especially the choruses) is negligible. For what it is, "Regressus" is a fine album, worthy of a listen from genre fans. Wrathchild's Choice Cuts: Night of the Storm - Great song, but unlike the others, it has a unique chorus! When Demons Return - luckily the demon of the repetitive chorus didn't return

Release Details

Mystic Prophecy

Regressus

Comments

Related