My Fatal Kiss

Krypteria is more of a power metal curiosity than a power metal band per say. They occasionally have their moments, but often one can’t help but wonder if maybe they’re a hard rock band trying to pretend to play metal, at least with regards to the lion’s share of their discography. And oh boy do they have commitment issues when it comes to sticking to a good idea, occasionally trotting out an impressive guitar line or some fancy little keyboard gimmick before degenerating back into a sea of pop music inspired mush. By most objective standards, that’s pretty well how “My Fatal Kiss” shapes up, a pile of mush that can’t make up its mind on whether it wants to be pop or metal, and often times trying to combine the most incompatible elements of both.

The overall flavor of this little dirt stained rock is a mechanical one, sporting formulaic guitar lines that are robotic enough to either inspire sleep or light boredom. “Ignition” kicks things off in a violently deceptive manner, presupposing something along the lines of a speed infused first song and turning out to be a dull, contrived groove song with a barely interesting orchestral/choral backdrop. There’s a slight hint of technical ability amid the syncopated guitar lines and layered keyboard sounds, but Ji-In’s vocals actually become grating and annoyingly accented like a bad night at a karaoke bar, and the whole chorus theme comes off as being more comical than catchy.

As the album unfolds, things basically go from bad to worse, as 2 note chug riffs give way to annoying whisper vocal sections and goofy woe-is-me depressive Goth chick lyrics. “My Fatal Kiss” just grates like an endless stretch of rumple strips on a 65 mph high way with that repetitive “can you handle this” vocal ad lib. Generally the music going on behind the wailing vocals is a decrepit mishmash of pop themes and over-processed guitars that borderline on industrial techno, meandering and generally coasting from nowhere to nowhere. “Why” gets even more offensive and trots out that lame “I’m a sad dejected lover and I’m going to cry forever” nonsense that was done with much more finesse and feeling when Within Temptation did it 2 years prior on “The Heart Of Everything”.

The first thing on here that even begins to resemble a metal song is “Deny”, and even here the tendency is more towards a limp wristed pop sound that only occasionally breaks out into something worthy of throwing the horns too. The lyrics are a bit more of a dystopian social awareness exercise, and though that annoying whisper ad lib is back, it is at least counterbalanced with some decent speed metal parts. After this things sort of degenerate back into down tempo pop metal land, ranging from the lame in the case of “Never Say Die” to the really lame in the case of “Shoot Me” where that annoying chorus just gets pounded out over and over in desperate hope of something sticking with the listener, but to no avail. Things make a slight rebound on the closing song “Now (Start Spreading The Word)”, but most of the really good parts still get drowned out in over-emphasis on the vocals and keyboards.

While a good bit more metallic than the show tunes meets hard rock exercise that was “Liberatio”, this is in roughly the same territory in terms of overall quality. No one should really be wasting more than $3 for something like this, and even then I’m speaking only of the really pathetic newer metal fanatics who really ate up the latest Nightwish album, or maybe the garbage that Sonata Arctica has been trying to pass off as music of late. All I ask is that power metal bands actually play power metal, and in the case of this sad little album, it’s pretty clear I was asking just a little too much.

Back during my college years, a guy I knew used to pose nude at the university’s art class for some extra cash. I remember asking him if he ever worried about entering the classroom in his bathrobe and running into girls (and guys) from some of his other classes sitting there front and center ready to scrutinize his male appendage, or if he worried about getting an itch or a cramp while he sat or stood there posing. He replied that he wasn’t concerned about any potential events like that, and had no issues with classmates checking out his privates either.

But there was one lurking fear that would sometimes keep him on edge in a state of tension and anxiety. This potential situation that nude male models apparently dread, is, as he called it, the inadvertent testicular shift. The penis could be hanging straight and proud, and yet, without any provocation or physical movement on the model’s part, the left testicle would suddenly saunter forward to proclaim its existence to the young artists. This would cause the penis to sway dramatically to the right, changing the pose and overall image the entire classroom was focused on. There would be giggles, but even more importantly there would be mutters of annoyance and dismay from those who were currently drawing or adding shadow and highlights to that particular region and had to start from scratch or somehow salvage what they had through memory. This shifting of the nuts seems to occur at any random time without warning, an occurrence unnoticed by most men, but for those few who pose naked in complete stillness in front of the perceptive and analyzing eyes of art students, it is the nightmare of nightmares.

I would consider My Fatal Kiss to be Krypteria’s testicular shift after a solid effort in Bloodangel’s Cry. From the cover sleeve alone it was pretty obvious that the band were aiming for a larger market. Seeing Ji-In Cho’s “American Beauty” pose (lying down naked with flowers covering her “fun spots”) behind the actual disc in the casing was groovy, but the blatancy of the visual marketing tactics had me worried that the musical output would be compromised to saccharine and more commercial leanings. That did turn out to be the case. Their previous album was not some extreme cult monster by any means, but for My Fatal Kiss the focus was obviously weighted towards the bastardized “gothic” tag than the power metal elements that made Bloodangel’s Cry an entertaining experience. Still, it’s not a terrible release, as if the aforementioned nude model suddenly pissed all over his own legs, and I genuinely really dig a couple of the tracks. Yet the ball shift is there, and in the end it really didn’t propel the band to stardom anyhow.

The shift is most notable in the songwriting itself. The opening track begins with a sort of lunkhead riff that aspiring metal guitarists would randomly stumble upon just after purchasing their first axe. The song improves as it progresses with some double bass pedaling during the chorus, yet the sluggish pace combined with the super polished production yields little in the sense of any actual energy or spirit except for Cho’s repeated orgasmic wailing of the word “WHY!” before the final chorus, which was sweet. Signed to Roadrunner at this point, the production quality is a technical improvement over their earlier material, with a much heavier drum sound and a crisp vocal track. There’s also a fair bit of studio trickery on some occasions, adding a bit of an industrial slant that doesn’t add much except for giving the album a slick, overtly sterile aura. Choirs are still utilized, and they sound a bit tighter this time around. I guess they decided to rehearse a bit this time.

The first half of this opus doesn’t really bother me at all. Yes, it’s a dip in quality somewhat from the better portions of their last full length, but it’s still pleasant enough. The title track has a nice chorus, but the nu-metal meets goth approach to the main riffs sounds like catering towards whoever thinks Lacuna Coil sounds better now than they did back in the early days. “Deny” is a fast number, really the only one that screams ‘power metal’ from the get-go. The double bass pedaling is an example of a great mixing job. It’s strong and defined, yet earthy and organic in sound. The one-two punch of killer tracks starts with that number and ends with “The Freak In Me”, which has this simple yet fantastic and memorable riff that reminds me of early 80’s Judas Priest. The chorus is catchy, the atmospheric break in the middle actually works, and the lyrics are entertaining and sung like she means it. Ji-In Cho needs to free the freak in her more often.

Then the sudden testicular shift occurs, causing the shaft to suddenly swing comically to the side as the right gonad rolls back to nudge the ass. Like the album as a whole compared to Bloodangel’s Cry, it’s not a complete quality nosedive, but it’s enough to cause an annoyance, specifically considering the reasonable level of enjoyment I was getting from the previous songs. I don’t wish to get too detailed in discussing the rest of the album, but these songs are either inferior versions of the first batch of tunes or just toss-offs in general. “Never Say Die” is almost a complete clone of the poppish and stupidly catchy “For You I’ll Bring The Devil Down” but without the hook, and “Shoot Me” is a heinous revamped version of the title track with its baseball cap angled even further sideways. Borderline atrocious. I’ll give the full-fledged ballad “God I Need Someone” slight credit though for being kind of cute, in that I feel as if I’m reading some teenage girly novel while it’s playing. I’m not the target audience but I do think she deserves a snuggle after singing it. Other tracks concerning the latter half of the album do little for me, including “Now”, which is an uplifting “We must stand up and fight against…err…stuff!” generic message twaddle. My version of the CD unfortunately lacks the two bonus tracks found in other versions, so for all I know the metaphorical balls nestle back into a side by side formation for these final numbers.

It’s not a terrible effort, and I give it a spin on occasion, mainly for the genuinely glorious “The Freak In Me”. Still, it didn’t seem to please those looking for faster and more power-related material, and the pop masses didn’t catch the ‘fatal kiss fever’ either. As a result, the band reverted to Bloodangel’s formula for their next album (All Beauty Must Die), which, despite lacking a sexy cover, turned out to be a nice surprise. It was almost like having Krypteria’s vocalist walk into the art classroom in a bathrobe a week after I had to draw my friend’s dick. Actually, not that dramatic a rebound, but the lack of explosive commercial success for My Fatal Kiss might have done them a favor in the end.

The amazing cover artwork of this decent release seems to indicate a very dark and mysterious album but this isn't the case. Krypteria put much darker tracks on their previous and following record. This album her is probably their most modern record. It’s also their most commercial album. The record needs some time to grow and tries out something completely different from the last two albums. Once one have accepted this and got used to this approach, the album turns out to be pretty decent and has quite a few interesting experiments and a lot of catchy songs to offer. But it has really not been the big bang that it could have been.

The band works with modern riffs, surprising breaks and almost industrial tones on the courageous opener "Ignition", they employ electronic sounds and heavy modern shrieking riffs in the experimental "Shoot Me" and they use interesting vocal effects and sound samples in the album highlights "Deny" and "The Freak In Me". Most of the songs remind me in their heavier and simpler tones of "Evanescence" like in the three great bonus tracks that are worth the purchase of the limited edition. In their calmer moments the band makes me think of "Elis" like in the brilliant ballad "God I Need Someone" that closes the regular edition of the record. This is a surprising mixture that turns out to work very well. As you can see, there are many strong and entertaining tracks on the album.

That doesn't mean though that the band has lost its identity as everything still sounds like Krypteria thanks to the simplistic riffs, the epic choruses with choirs and the great voice of Cho Ji-In. A song like the single "For You I'll Bring The Devil Down" goes back to the style of the previous output and unites in a rather short running time everything that Krypteria stands for: heavy riffs and verses, epic and catchy choruses and some classic influences with pianos, orchestras and choirs but everything in a rather decent and commercial way that is a pretty good alternative to many too overwhelming symphonic metal bands nowadays. This is the only song that truly relates to the last record and might be a fan favourite.

In the end, the albums lacks of a true highlight and maybe an epic long track. There are once again a few fillers on the album but less than on the other records. A part of this fact, it's the most consistent record ever done by the band. The modern approach fits the band very well and we have at least five potential single hits on the record. The classic elements and a lot of bombastic epic moments have gone for shorter and sweeter tracks that could please to a larger public. The band focussed on their strengths and catalyzed them. They have progressed, matured and moved on. I still feel that the band sounds a little bit too professional and eventually cold with all those short tracks on this record. It sounds as if the band would play stuff like this for years now and would have calculated a mainstream breakthrough which didn’t really happen. The quality for the success is surely there and with a little bit more promotion and radio airplay, they could have gone very far. On the other hand, a lot of passion and courage has gone. The fans of the band's earlier works and of traditional symphonic or gothic metal might though have a couple of problems with this shorter, simpler and more commercial record that heads for a different style and fan basis. I am able to take this experiment as it is and see many positive sides of it. As an album, I would say that this one is objectively said the best of the band. Concerning the single songs and the live qualities, there are many tracks from the previous and next record that I would prefer. If the previous record represented the band’s heart, this one represents the band’s brain. That's why my final rating is rather positive but not in an emotionally overwhelming way.