If there is an album that wraps up everything about modern heavy metal in a neat package, it would be Dysphoria. Technical rhythms and brutal breakdowns. Singalong choruses designed for stadiums. Aggressive deathcore screaming and bellowing. Downtuned complex chugging. The band in question here is Termina, formed of vocalist Andy Cizek and guitarist Nik Nocturnal.
Along with Jared Dines joining forces with Trivium‘s Matt Heafy and Light The Torch (and former Killswitch Engage) vocalist Howard Jones, there is a growing group of YouTube guitar stars branching out to original music creation. Nik Nocturnal is well revered for his ability to respond to a new modern metal track with a guitar cover quicker than Disney ruined Luke Skywalker. But how will this go now the attention is turned to writing original material?
Well to start with, you take one of the most talented vocalists in modern metal to front the band. Andy Cizek can sing any style associated with the various genres modern metal has generated. Whether it is brutal death growls, ear piecing shrieks or anthemic passages. We even get the obligatory “bleugh”. He can do it all at an extremely high level. The only thing missing is the deathcore pig squeals. But hopefully there is a second album for that nonsense.
However, as extremely talented as Andy Cizek is, it would be wasted if the instrumentation surrounding him on Dysphoria was less than adequate. Quite the contrary here. The sheer quantity of quality riffs is exceptional for a debut offering. There is enough melodic technicality to clearly establish this as math metal record – or djent if you prefer. But never too much to make the contrast to the simpler choruses too stark in contrast.
2 seconds into the opening track Dysphoria kicks off at full throttle. A longer intro, or maybe an intro track building up the intensity would have felt like a more natural commencement. Desolate Spectre and The Abyss are the highlights of the album. Full of deathcore brutality and ferocity. To place some criticism to balance the heaping praise, Dysphoria doesn’t really change gear until the penultimate track. Using more variety early on would further accentuate the heavier and more technical parts.
With Dysphoria, Termina have created a barnstorming debut effort. Two extremely talented musicians giving it both barrels. If you are a fan of any variety of modern metal, there is a plethora here for you. If you are OG or die metalhead then you probably gave up reading after the title. So I can comfortably say they are wrong. Listen to Dysphoria and revel in a modern metal knockout.
Score: 8.5/10
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