Heavy, fast, and aggressive death metal
Murat Batmaz | Istanbul, Turkey | 10/29/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Unfortunately I haven't heard Yyrkoon's earlier releases, but judging by their highly impressive work on Occult Medicine, they sure seem like albums I might enjoy. This is death metal in its rawest and most realized manner. No keys, no continuous galloping riffage in order to be catchy, and no signs of mainstream agenda whatsoever. Occult Medicine is the kind of album littered with amazing lead guitar work, both deep and tortured growls, and ultra-fast drum and bass rhythms, all enhanced with a great production work.
I knew little about Yyrkoon till I heard this disc. Obviously they hail from France, a country where death metal is certainly not the most popular metal genre. The band is led by vocalist and guitarist Stephane Souteryrand who seems responsible for most of the music and lyrics, with substantial support by his band mates. His songwriting is in the old school thrash metal meets death metal style, perhaps influenced by the likes of Carcass, Morbid Angel, and Pestilence. Unlike most other European death metal bands, Yyrkoon sound uncannily American, given their heavy approach to riffing and incessant double bass drum work. From heavily thrash-oriented death metal songs in the form of "Blasphemy" and "Reversed World", tracks filled with atomic old school death riffs, precise dual leads, killer bass breaks quickly replaced by rapid-fire riffs. However, interestingly enough, both songs reveal their European origin due to the band's very traditional heavy metal style of soloing, in that I am often reminded of the first two Mercyful Fate discs or any solo on Carcass' Heartwork milestone. On other songs such as "Doctor X", the band goes for more speedy riffing and melodious guitar solos with headbanging quality, whilst "Censored Project" finds them exploring technical thrash metal ideas laced with soaring lead guitars.
The band's love for American style death metal comes through on "Revenant Horde" with its Morbid Angel-like atonal soloing amidst continuous blast beats, stop-start riffs, and dual harmonic lead work. Likewise, on "Trapped into Life", except for its brief clean vocal passage, they turn into a mercilessly heavy grindcore act, particularly in the way Souteryrand sings, but once again the amazing clean tone in the second lead gives away the band's European roots. With all that said, the best song on the album is the title track, pushing about seven minutes, and enveloping a very cinematic tone and atmospheric impact. Its slow build-up, elements from earlier blackened thrash metal bands and wonderfully beautiful textural guitar harmonies in the middle make for a great listen. If the band decides to explore more of this type of writing, they could break some new ground, in an overpopulated genre with either old school death metallers or Swedish melodic bands.
Jacob Hansen's production and the artwork as well as the booklet are all stellar. Anyone who likes relentlessly heavy and brutal death metal injected with flowing lead melodies and technical riff and rhythm structure will enjoy Yyrkoon's Occult Medicine."
A lethal conglomaration of extreme metal styles
Nicholas Adam Chupka | Derwood, MD | 10/07/2005
(4 out of 5 stars)
"Four and a half stars
As usual, Yyrkoon is a band I discovered through reviews and Listmanias here on Amazon, and once again, I owe Amazon and the other reviewers a big thank you.
What surprises me most about my enjoyment of this album are the obvious extreme death metal, and black metal influences. Though I'm a huge fan of death metal, I don't often find myself salivating for bands as extreme as Cryptopsy or Nile, though I completely respect and pay homage to what they do. In addition, with the exception of a few choice albums, I am not really into black metal all that much.
Luckily, France metal outfit Yyrkoon mixes enough thrash into their Occult Medicine to please this devourer of catchy/memorable riffs. Add to this a near impeccable production quality, and any extreme metal fan can enjoy this unforgiving speed and brutality manifested in a clean and polished tone.
The result of the production and the variety of styles is that Yyrkoon, first and foremost, establishes an indisputably radio-unfriendly tone and mood while still treating the listener to groovy and dynamic tracks. I agree with the other reviewer here in that the drums can best be described as the endless succession of bomb detonations, and luckily, this drummer has a whole arsenal of explosives, and not just a massive supply of one kind. The guitar players too, lay down riffs that run the spectrum of metal: grindcore, melodic death, black, death, and thrash. While no one is going to give these guys medals for breaking ground with their instrumentation, the band should be given credit for their ability to play within the songs and themselves, never slacking off or showing signs of laziness, and never sacrificing song cohesion to force-feed self-glorifying, wanking solos. Instead, every track includes one, and often a handful, of delicious riffs which you will find yourself playing over and over again, creating serious problems for the well-being of your neck.
I would highly recommend this album to any fan of thrash, death, or black (unless the utterly cold, bleak, and distorted black is the only kind you can dig). Your ears will be treated to a feast of punishing intensity at the exact median of melody and cacophony."
Track Listings (11) - Disc #1