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Kyo is the debut full-length album by Brazilian metal act Still Alive. The album was released in 2012. Still Alive were previously known as Ruthless Cry and released an EP, Into the Snakepit, in 2006. I’m not entirely sure why the band decided to ditch the name Ruthless Cry for the much more used name of Still Alive (there are at least three other artists with the name that I know of), but this review isn’t the place to discuss the relative pros and cons of such a generic band name. Onto the music.
On Kyo Still Alive draw elements from three styles of metal music. Perhaps the most obvious in the release is power metal. Kyo is packed with speedy guitar rhythms. But there are also some much slower riffs in the music that are more traditional metal based, most evident in the metal ballad To Live Forever. Some songs combine both riffing styles, but things are firmly weighted towards power metal. The third style is progressive metal, with the songs featuring a lot of progressive keyboard parts that add that extra layer than one would normally expect from the other two genres Still Alice draws from. The music also does tend to meander off as well with some instrumental breaks although there is nothing long-winded as the album sticks to a song-based approach. As a whole you can mostly describe Kyo as a progressive power metal release.
The thing is, although Kyo is technically well played and Still Alive are often quite creative with their ideas, I’m often just not feeling the band’s music. There’s an important spark missing here, one that would push Kyo beyond being technically good and make the songs on the album simply more memorable. That’s the biggest problem I have with Kyo; for all the skill Still Alive demonstrate during the album’s ten tracks, none of it really sticks with me. I’m like ‘that’s interesting’ when the album is playing but after the event I just can’t remember what it was I found so interesting.
This is the sort of release that I find really frustrating; with a band with skill as evident as this, Kyo ought to be a stunning album that should make me want to keep coming back for more, but often it does quite the opposite and makes me just wish it would end. I’ve given the album a few listens now in order to give it the benefit of the doubt in hope that it might grow on me, but although it opened up a little bit more with each listen I still can’t consider the album to be anything more than merely a slightly above average progressive power metal release that reeks of wasted potential.
66/100
(Originally written for Heavy Metal Haven (http://metaltube.freeforums.org))