Lycosia

Last Splash

All these Worlds

Follow me

Hard dressed Bitch

Leftover

Kiss me Hard

Say Fuck Yeah!

Light Years

Ymae Depaka

Don't say a Word (Make up mix)

Christi Scythe : vocals, lead guitar, saz
Don Ragno : Drums
Vince : Keys
Ilhan : Bass

LYCOSIA: "Apokalipstik" lycosia equilibre music

distributed in Switzerland by

Lycosia

review by Matthew "Newbreed99" Haumschild___

It’s music that doesn’t give you a headache after listening to it for 6 hours

Well, this band isn’t Slayer. It’s joke, you are supposed to laugh. HA! HA! HA! No, seriously. Lycosia makes it presence known again through their new album, “Apokalipstik.” I love this album name. You have impending doom blended with make-up. I love it. Lycosia is France. What!? France!? They make music over there? Yes, they do, go to my myspace site, and check out the French metal website, and yes, you will find Lycosia. Now, Lycosia doesn’t sound lie your typical music group. I’ve never been able to classify them. The band has aspects of metal, gothic, glam, punk, international, techno, anything but classical and country.

Last Splash starts out kind of slow and a little mysterious. But once the synthesized drums kick in, the song starts to have a dance beat. The sound I hear in the background, along with the synth-drums is something between a guitar and even more synth-keys! The vocals kick in about a minute into the song and the producer has done something rather ballsy: he places a very big sounding reverb on the vocals, making them barely audible. It’s as if the band is going more towards an atmospheric sound than anything else. The song continues into it’s mid-paced dance beat throughout the song and before I knew it the song was done…five and a half minutes later.

All these Worlds starts out with something I might see on an Anime show. Techno sounding synths, and the bass kicks in and gives it a dance groove to it, but when the guitars kick in, it turns into a 80’s style of song. And the singing comes in and it turns upbeat, but it maintained the massive reverb. It got to sound really weird at the chorus part of the song. It almost sounded like it would appeal to young teenagers than anything else. It was pleasant to listen to, but not to crank out or anything.

Now, I want to know, whose idea it was to name a song, “Hard Dressed Bitch.” I am curious, how can one, dress hard? The track stats out with a guitar with the wah pedal up all the way. I think it sounds cool. This is one of their more punk sounding songs. It reminds me like a combination of Killing Joke going glam with silly lyrics. This track isn’t without heavy synth either. The reverb on the vocals are gone, but it’s virtually buried in the mix, making this song more atmospheric than anything else.

My favorite track on the CD is Leftover. It has more of a rock element than most of the album and the vocals are back where they should be in the mix, loud enough to hear them! The chorus is very catchy, and the beat is infectious. It’s a mid-paced song, the funny part is, I could see people making love with this song in the background. It’s a bit popish too, but that isn’t totally bad.

Light Years isn’t too bad of a song either. It reminds me of something Depeche Mode would have done had they had a guitar player with distortion. Matter of fact, I would have to say it reminds me of something between Duran Duran and DM. It’s another steady mid-paced song that isn’t upbeat. The guitars are more atmospheric and not in my face all the time. It’s another song that’s pleasant to listen to.

Overall Quality:

I thought it was ballsy for the producer to place the vocals so softly in a few songs on this album. It’s unheard of because the majority of people, when they listen to rock music, they listen to the singer first. But for this album, Lycosia placed heavy emphasis on their synth and guitars. The drums were routine but everything sounded great quality wise. I like the fact the vocals were low in those songs. It’s different.

I though the CD was very atmospheric. Where one could place the CD in, and forget that it’s on. Is that good or bad? For Metal that’s bad, for punk that’s bad, matter of fact, for most kinds of music…that’s bad. But, is the music bad? No. It’s music that doesn’t give you a headache after listening to it for 6 hours, but it didn’t grab my attention. I’m not sure if I would recommend this to one specific group of people. Because, it’s too techno for the punks, it’s not heavy enough for the metallers, it’s too gothic for people who listen to pop music…I say market it to everyone. It’s nice to put on as…atmospheric music people shouldn’t bitch about.

rating: 8/10

Matthew Haumschild 12.11.2006

zum Seitenanfang

top - inizio pagina

[I Despair]