HOPE

Myrath is an awesome new Progressive Metal band. Playing in the style of Symphony X, but being able to add their own flavour to the mix! This album was a real surprise, and all the performances on the this disc are top notch. I recommand you go to their myspace page and take a listen. This band is brilliant.

A real surprise. These Tunisian boys, at their debut have achieved a nearly perfect album, imaginative, full of technique and passion. Surely their idols are Symphony X, which you can hear a strong imprint, nevertheless Myrath are truly original. They have been able to include in their music, with great skill, sounds and atmospheres of their land, creating a pleasing blend of Nordic power and Mediterranean melody, all supported by excellent instrumental technique and great effect voice. All songs are beautiful, starting from "Intro" that leads us directly into the Sahara, it continues with Confession, Hope and Last Breath, which combine melody, power and oriental flavors. Seven Sins is the true gem of the album, powerful, passionate and full of changes. This is followed by beautiful ballad Fade away and energetic All my fears. In the end My inner war, a strange and wonderful combination among Carlos Santana and the best melodic metal. In short, a devastating start and the promise of a great future.

Myrath is a young progressive metal band , surprise surprise from Tunisia, a country with no background in prog music or any kind of rock music in general. Very talented and full of energy this Myrath is an extremly pleasent surprise for me and I think to many prog metal listners. Taken their influences from Symphony X and in places from Adagio (Kevin Codfert the keyboard player of Adagio is their sound engineer and producer) both instrumental passages and the vocal parts, this tunisian band manage to create something realy great in this field. Not necesarly original , but very well played with lot great interplays between guitar in keys, the cherry on the cake here, but aswell the vocalist Zaher Zorgati and the drumer did a great job, showing that even in countries with no history in prog music can appear great band full of talent and imagination. Almost every piece is uptempo with great time signatures, great chops on guitar and very speedy and well executed key passages - not far from their idols Symphony X. The best pieces are Confession with some arabian flavours added in their prog metal roots - nice and chachy tune and the titled track Hope another example of good and well playd progressive metal . The rest are good but these two mentioned are the best. So I will give 4 stars, anyway to me is not a masterpiece for sure, but a very good album that worth investigate if you are a fan of progressive metal. The younger bands might take close listen to this band they will have a lot to learn for sure.

Middle East extravaganza

One friend of mine introduced me to this band because of my love for Prog Metal. He was convinced that I should give them a try. At first, thinking about a fusion between prog metal and Middle East folk music didn't sound that promising, but well, glad I'm wrong about it. I have to say, this friend was the one that introduced me to Flametal, which was a complete bad experience to me, so I really get to this band expecting that craziness and miss direction. Lucky I was wrong.

This is not just prog metal, it's one of the heaviest bands in prog metal. Their heavy riffing and the double bass drum leading the music into a very dynamic and constant change of time signatures are great but sometimes it felt like too much. I guess is about to let the songs grow on it's own pace and that's it. The folk traditional fusion is very interesting and the keyboards are fundamental for giving this music a complete new level of style. SYMPHONY X has it's blueprint over this band, and the style of the singer is very close to Russell Allen style. The quality of the musicians and the songwriting is nothing but impressive, but sometimes sounds too generic, now that there are so many of this kind of bands out there.

Now, don't be fooled, when they are exploring into the folk fusion their get really experimental and original and it worth the listen. It's a little heavier than what someone could expect, but it's very in the route of what they want to project. This is ideal for metalheads, but anyone who appreciates fusion music can really dig into this.

At the end, there are little catchy choruses or melodies here and there that helps to bear this album through. It's a short material of "only" 50 minutes, so the dosis of music is good enough to leave you asking for more. I don't point at any highlights as this album should be heard as a complete piece, not because is conceptual but because is very complete in the musicianship. 4 stars for a great album. Prog Metal original and fresh. Give it a try.

I discovered this exotic band from Tunisia with a song from their second album last year on a sampler included in the normally pretty weak British Metal Hammer magazine but I forgot to check them out. With the release of their new third record, I remembered this talented band and decided to take my time and check their discography out. Obviously, I started with the band's first strike called "Hope". The five young men from Tunisia didn't disappoint me indeed and deliver a strong first record somewhere between progressive metal, power metal, thrash metal and some folk influences.

The only negative thing I could see is that some instrumental sections are sometimes too long and pointless. I must also admit that the albums has a little down with the mediocre half ballad "Fade Away" and "All my Fears" that gets lost in overwhelming instrumental wankery.

The rest of the album is of the grandest kind and in the end one of the most convincing progressive metal releases of the year 2007. A great introduction with a gracious folk mood leads perfectly to the true opener which is "Confession". I must confess that this is an amazing opener that varies from a great thrash riff in the beginning to some power metal or even neoclassical metal and shred passages in the middle parts to a more and more elaborated progressive style with haunting melodies, some citations of the classic music genre and a couple of orchestral Maghreb folk influences. There are so many influences and details in this song that I could listen to it over and over again and still discover something new each time I do so. This is not just amazing, it is perfect because the song still sounds coherent and logical within a running time of six and a half minutes.

The next songs are all amazing but not perfect. The only reason for this statement is that Myrath sometimes sound too much like their American influences Dream Theater or Symphony X. The title track "Hope" still convinces with some unusual riffs and a few exotic folk vibes but the middle part sounds too traditional. The epic "Seven Sins" has the same problem. If someone has told me that this was a song from some old Symphony X record of the nineties, I would have believed this without a doubt. Still, the song itself is great and features some amazing piano melodies. What I really like about the song is the fact that all instruments have an important role and get their time to shine. The amazing album closer "My Inner War" has the same approach but it pleases more to me because it sounds more coherent and focussed.

An exceptional track might be "Last Breath" that convinces with stunning drum patterns and orchestral folk sounds with a fresh breath of thrashing heaviness. This track reminds me a little bit of "Acrassicauda" from Iraq and this track here could have been an excellent single choice.

After all, this debut album is very promising and the band already has a perfect song on this album plus many great moments. The only thing I feel they need to improve is to find their own style and have the courage to get away from the American progressive and thrash sounds and European power metal sounds. If they ever succeed to do so, they might become the leaders of a wave of African metal in the world, maybe with the help of their colleagues from Arkan who are living in France but mostly come from Maghreb countries or even Threatening from Ouganda which would be really interesting. Anyway, give this album a couple of spins if you like well made diversified progressive metal. Meanwhile, I will check out the band's next two records pretty soon.

Originally published on www.metal-archives.com on September 28th of the year 2011.

The debut album from this band from Tunisia proved that in the brave new world, great bands can emerge from the nooks and crannies of previously unthinkable places where little attention had been paid to before. MYRATH not only emerged from an unexpected country with no history of prog nor metal but little history of any famous bands whatsoever. It's really great to finally hear this debut album after hearing their excellent third album TALES OF THE SANDS.

There's no doubt that MYRATH are the Symphony X of the Sahara with some Dream Theater influences as well. At least the prog metal half of the equation. The Middle Eastern folk part which is what really sets them apart from the previously mentioned bands is woven into the tapestry of the music very well. The album begins with some exotic sounding North African music before the metal kicks in and the result is that I was instantly sucked into it. These guys really know how to craft well written and catchy tunes that leave you wanting more.

In a way they have usurped the Symphony X sound and are now doing it better then that band does. I would give this 5 stars if it was completely original but since it is so derivative no matter how good it is I'll go with 4

Review Myrath and the temptation to compare them to Symphony X is overwhelming, and this is particularly the case on their debut album. Playing down the influence of traditional Middle Eastern music on their sound a little in order to demonstrate that they can recapture the Symphony X power-progressive metal sound just as effectively as anyone, Hope might not be as strikingly original as later albums like Tales of the Sands, but it does demonstrate that even early on Myrath had a keen command of their chosen musical style. Yes, Symphony X listeners may find it very familiar, but I don't think it ever becomes outright derivative, with Myrath coming up with ingenious wrinkles to the Symphony X sound that the Symph-Xers themselves haven't cottoned to. It's just kind of a shame they don't put the more original aspects of their sound front and centre here like they do on later albums.