DYSRIDER — Bury the Omen (review)

Album · 2015 · Melodic Death Metal

4/5 · 2015-04-10
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Bury the Omen (2015) is the debut full-length album by Swiss metal act Dysrider. Or it could also be the third full-length album by the band formerly known as Trophallaxy, depending on your point of view. It may as well be the former though despite Dysrider being a direct continuation of Trophallaxy (with some line-up changes), as the group have also shifted the main focus of their music from power metal to death metal. This came about after Trophallaxy parted ways with guitarist Yannick Rey. Rey wasn't the main writer for Trophallaxy but perhaps his contributions held more weight with how the band sounded than writing credits really show.

But have they really changed as a band? Well I'd say the answer to that is actually both yes and no. Bury the Omen is certainly more of a death metal record than the last album released as Trophallaxy, Resilience (2013), but it doesn't fully depart from the previous incarnation's sound either. Really all they've done is switch up the elements that made their sound. Resilience was a progressive power metal album with symphonic elements and a melodic death metal edge mostly thanks to the very strong growled vocals by Jonathan Pellet (also keyboardist) and Bury the Omen is a symphonic melodic death metal record with both progressive and power metal elements. While growling vocals played a supporting role for Trophallaxy, they now take a more prominent role in Dysrider's sound, although by no means has female vocalist Joëlle Graz (also cellist) been shunted aside. The split between the two vocalists is more or less even now, to my ears at least, with the odd song where one or the other dominates. The two voices go well together. Jonathan is a strong death metal vocalist and handles the increased vocal time well. As a death metal record there may actually be a few too many clean vocals on Bury the Omen for the death metal fan palette though, but as a fan of Trophallaxy's last album I'm personally glad that the band haven't wiped the slate completely clean with this album and I certainly have no criticisms regarding Joëlle's singing. The contrast between the deep growls and clean female singing may seem an old formula to some but Dysrider is just the latest to prove its validity as far as I'm concerned.

The guitar riffs on the album feature a similar high speed assault to that of Resilience's more power metal orientated approach, but they're rawer and more aggressively delivered, sometimes even being quite thrashy, such as in the last track Embers Reflection (which also happens to be one of the best). The keyboards add a grandiose backdrop to the music, a contrast that works well, in a similar manner to the vocal approach. The key instrument on the record though is easily the cello, which I'm glad was carried over from the Trophallaxy days. It really adds a whole other dimension to the symphonic death metal sound that other artists playing the style don't have. With more and more symphonic death metal acts showing up on radar now having that extra special something is important. The progressive elements of Resilience don't crop up quite so much on Bury the Omen, but do still make an appearance every now and then to stir things up. It's fair to say I think that Bury the Omen isn't technically as adventurous than Resilience was overall but the band succeeds in their change of direction and have made a strong symphonic death metal record.

Personally speaking though I still prefer Resilience as an album; it's actually one of my favourite records from 2013 and one that I'm still regularly going back to two years after its release. It would have been a tough act to follow even if Dysrider had carried on as Trophallaxy. It's a true standout release of the power metal genre. I have to be honest, as a follow-up, Bury the Omen does fall short but it's unfair to compare a release like Bury the Omen to a release like Resilience. They may have similarities but overall are just a bit too different to compare. Resilience probably wouldn't have even crossed my mind if Bury the Omen was by anyone else. Therefore my rating is done from the perspective that this is a debut album by a new band on the scene and I wouldn't hesitate to award 4.5 stars in that situation. I really like this album in other words, but I'm also not fully convinced that changing direction was entirely the right thing to do for this particular band.

more than 2 years ago
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666sharon666 wrote:

more than 2 years ago

This is good but I'm still quite disappointed by it. Trophallaxy's Resilience was my favourite album of 2013. This is a massive step down compared to it.