STYGMA IV — The Human Twilight Zone (review)

STYGMA IV — The Human Twilight Zone album cover

Album · 2002 · Power Metal

2/5 · 2023-10-07
lukretion

Stygma IV’s fourth full-length The Human Twilight Zone can be described as an attempt to bridge together the sound of the band’s first LP, the proggy and experimental Solum Mente Infirmis..., with their leaner, more direct other two records, where the Austrian combo veered towards a dark prog/power metal sound with thrashy inflections. The problem, however, is that Stygma IV tried to achieve this difficult balance by extremizing both aspects of their previous sound. The Human Twilight Zone is at the same time rougher and more complex than each of the band’s previous albums.

This isn’t a very promising or successful approach, in my view. The Human Twilight Zone is heavy as a tons of bricks, as Stygma IV bludgeons the unsuspecting listener with copious doses of granitic guitar riffs, pounding drum beats, fast tempos, and aggressive shouted vocals, conjuring up a sound that isn’t miles away from early Savatage or Nevermore. There are very few concessions to melody across the album’s 12 tracks and even after repeated listens I wouldn’t be able to reproduce any of the vocal lines or melodies the band put on this LP.

Normally, this type of heavy, uncompromising approach favours simple, streamlined song structures and arrangements, to maximize impact, but also to mercifully avoid overloading the listener. Not here, alas. The songwriting is utterly complex, with multi-part structures, multiple changes of tempo, and frequent detours from the main themes, sometimes stretching the songs to improbable lengths (the 16+ minutes of “Sleep”). Generally, as a prog rock and metal lover, I can take complexity. Hell, often I even demand complexity, and in my reviews you will regularly find me moaning about albums where things get too pedestrian. But writing a good, complex piece of progressive music takes much more than just stacking together a zillion different riffs and motifs. The various ideas need to flow into one another, while the song should not lose an overall sense of purpose and direction. All things that I fail to perceive here, where the band have instead seemingly followed an “everything but the kitchen sink” approach rather than a reasoned and skilled compositional style. I cannot say I am surprised, though, because this was also my complaint with Stygma IV’s first LP Solum Mente Infirmis..., for which I had greatly welcomed the more direct and streamlined direction the band had taken with their subsequent albums.

As in the case of Solum Mente Infirmis..., I am left with the impression that this four-piece is comprised of really skilled musicians (bassist Alexander Hilzensauer is a truly gifted musician) who have some interesting and exciting ideas, which however they fail to translate into enjoyable and harmonious compositions. The final deathblow to this album is delivered by the subpar production, which is actually closer to a rough demo than a professional studio album. The drum sound is particularly bad and I really dislike the disjointed way guitars and drums are mixed together, giving an uneven sound to the whole record.

After all this criticism, you may wonder why my rating is still so relatively high. It’s because the musicianship is generally good and I can still find nice sections here and there in some of the songs (be it a riff, a solo, or simply a particularly headbangable passage). But all in all this is one of those albums that I had to force myself to listen to repeatedly for reviewing purposes, and I am pretty sure I won’t be returning to it any time soon after I wrap up this piece.