Karma

Hailing originally from Tunisia, prog metal act Myrath have gradually grown in an international ensemble enlisting in their ranks French drummer Morgan Berthet since 2011, and keyboard player / orchestrator Kévin Codfert (from Adagio), first as guest musician and then, on this new album Karma, as full band member. This process of internationalization has coincided with a gradual shedding of the Middle Eastern folk influences that have been at the heart of Myrath’s sound since their inception. At the same time, new influences have found place in the band’s musical palette, ranging from melodic hard rock to modern progressive metal aesthetics.

The major strength of the new album Karma lies precisely in the careful balancing of these different sonic facets. What I find particularly remarkable is that, individually, each of these styles would normally feel tedious and overbearing to me. The slickness of modern metal, the intense yearning of melodic hard rock, the alluring ornateness of Middle Eastern scales – they all tend to become a bit too much for me when used monothematically in the context of the same album. On Karma, Myrath manage to escape this pitfall by conjuring up a masterful equilibrium between the core sources of their sound, both within and between songs. This helps enormously to keep things interesting, as listeners are kept on their toes, not quite sure how the song and album may develop. Take “Words Are Failing”, for example. The song begins with striking Middle Eastern strings arrangements, but then quickly transitions to a verse that is laden with modern, pop-infused vocal lines, before taking yet another turn into progressive territories with a short instrumental section that blends dissonant orchestration and technical guitar soloing. Although this is not one of my favourite songs from the album, it is hard not to marvel at the skillful songwriting and arrangements.

The richness of the arrangements is another major strength here. Myrath use a vast array of instruments throughout the album, often in the context of the same song. Traditional Middle Eastern strings are weaved in with brass (trumpet / sax / trombone) and “occidental strings” arrangements, creating a thick, but extremely varied, sonic landscape. The same variety exists in the rhythmic department, where the drums are often accompanied by subtle electronic programming, traditional folk music percussions (the North African instrument karkabou played by Kévin Codfert), as well as a prominent use of slapping by bassist Anis Jouini. On the other hand, the guitars are often relegated to chug somewhere in the background, as strings and brass frequently carry the songs’ main riffs. This is slightly underwhelming, as the lack of a strong guitar presence results in a lighter overall sound that somewhat reduces the songs’ impact– especially in the long stretch between “Candles Cry” and “Child of Prophecy”, which contain the mellower and more pop-tinged material of the album.

Zaher Zorgati’s vocals add another highlight to the album, blending emotive singing with a gravelly delivery that reminds me of a cross between Jorn Lande and Kamelot’s Tommy Karevik. The other band members’ performances are excellent too, with Kévin Codfert’s piano/keyboard playing coming across as particularly engaging.

Overall, I enjoyed listening to Karma much more than what I would have predicted based on the core ingredient of its sound. This is testament to Myrath’s ability in juggling their different influences without letting any overshadow the others or become overbearing. The richness of facets should ensure the album will appeal to fans of a broad range of metal subgenres, including hard rock (Jorn Lande, Masterplan), modern prog metal (Kamelot, Seventh Wonder, Pyramaze), symphonic metal (Adagio) and of course Middle-Eastern prog metal (Orphaned Land). On a less positive note, the reliance on familiar tropes may also be seen as the album’s main limitation, since it is dubious whether Karma will stand the test of time or leave a lasting impression on listeners well-versed with the genres mentioned earlier.

Myrath's sixth official full length effort Karma was already scheduled to be released last autumn but it was pushed back for about six months. Fans were instead overwhelmed with five different singles in the past few months. If that strategy was based upon the group's label, then the French-Tunisian quartet should realize that it deserves better and change business partners as soon as possible.

The group's new output Karma comes five years after Shelili and few things have changed on these eleven new songs with a total running time of forty-eight minutes. The band unites a steady heavy metal rhythm section with occasional djent riffs in combination with mellow symphonic power metal sounds and occasional folk soundscapes from the Maghreb. The songwriting is concise, focused and streamlined. Most songs come around with catchy choruses crowned by Zaher Zorgati's versatile, emotional and colourful vocals.

However, the quartet doesn't manage to unfold its full potential and overall delivers an album that qualifies as slightly above average at best. That unsatisfactory result is due to three precise reasons.

First and foremost, the production is bland, generic and streamlined as it suffocates any potential energy and makes the final result sound dull, lifeless and uninspired.

Up next, the songwriting features too much repetition. The quartet fails to take any risks on this output. The vast majority of tracks rushes by without leaving any lasting impressions other than mild boredom. That's even the case after multiple spins, so don't expect an album that might grow on you and surprise you in the long run.

Lastly, the band has completely abandoned its original identity as Middle Eastern progressive metal band on outputs such as Hope, Desert Call and Tale of the Sands. Instead, the band aims for commercial success with pop melodies, simple musicianship and mellow soundscapes. Myrath plays the kind of background music requested for the current Prince of Persia reboot. However, this talented quartet can be so much more than just that. Since success in the business department has still not been achieved so many years into its career, the band should sincerely go back to its beloved roots that made the quartet stand out in the very first place.

This is what Karma is all about after all. If you do good things to your fans and yourself, then good things will be happening to everyone involved and interested. If however you try to adapt a new identity that just doesn't quite seem to fit, the band might fall into oblivion and disrepair. While Myrath's Karma is still acceptable at the end of the line, here's hope that this output is the last of its genre and that the band starts exploring and experimenting again on its next studio record.

Since 2010, Myrath is "Desert Call" and "Tales of the Sands" for me. Maybe a little bit "Legacy". With "Shehili", it was clear that something had changed in a negative way. I had corresponded with Malek during Tales of the Sands and asked him why they were moving away from Desert Call. He told me that Desert Call sounded too much like a Symphony X clone and that they were planning to create a unique sound. While they were about to reap the fruits of this in Legacy, we see that they gave up their efforts to create an original sound and completely played the market.

If we take a general look at the album, an energetic and catchy atmosphere has been tried to be given as a general characteristic. Catchy choruses and simple melodies are used. This has resulted in the loss of the in-depth musicianship and high level compositions of the previous records. In short, the band has lost its essence and mainstreamisation has reached a high level. In this album, the use of keyboard-based oriental melodies is replaced by Kevin Codfert's simple keyboard tunes. The oriental part of the work is handled with simple violin parts.

There are three tracks on the album that left a positive impression on me. I would like to dwell on these tracks in turn, because in my opinion, the rest of the tracks are all similar to each other and make the album extremely "unbearable" and "boring". Although good things are tried in the intro of Words Are Falling, the remaining songs are positioned as ordinary songs that play the market and are purely for commercial purposes.

Child of Prophecy: This track is the closest to the old progressive Myrath in both structure and sound. The track has a successful intro created with the co-operation of piano, violin and vocals. The second half of the track, which is enriched from an oriental point of view with the darbuka samples used, constitutes the main striking part. Zaher's vocal melodies accompanying the guitar are admirable here. Towards the 3rd minute, the breakdownish structure increases the strikingness of the song.

Candles Cry: Although it is a bit long due to the repetition of the same structure, it is the most energetic track on the album. I think it is also the track where the bass guitar is the most effective. The 9th second violin part, which acts as a kind of main melody, is quite catchy.

To the Stars: A successful use of bass guitar in the intro and the rest of the track. But the most striking thing is that Kevin Codfert's keyboard solo is a bit closer to Elyes'. It resembles the old Elyes-Malek keyboard-solo sparrings. I would love to hear solos like this keyboard solo throughout the album. And of course, Zaher's screams starting from the 3rd minute are quite impressive.

Elyes Bouchoucha was undoubtedly more than a keyboardist. He was a good musician and a composer who formed the essence of the band. Together with Malek, he was one of the inventors of the oriental sound established in the previous albums. His departure from the band caused Myrath to turn into a band almost indistinguishable from its quintessence.

With the album Karma, we are witnessing that Myrath has completely destroyed all the good things that Myrath built up to 2016 and sponged off their quality past. The evolution of a highly successful Middle-Eastern progressive metal band into a pop-rock band.

Maybe it will be a bit tabloid-like, but Kevin Codfert, who has been the producer of the band since the first album and also took over the keyboards on the last album, has officially infiltrated the band and caused one of the most important members Elyes Bouchoucha to leave the band and stole the soul of the band by interfering with the songwriting. As you can understand, this person is the main cause of the band's derailment. Codfert turned Myrath, which once rose like an oasis in the desert in the middle-east, into a soulless band playing ordinary chorus songs that would be fun to stomp on in concerts and forgotten for a few years.

He ruined the band's sound and slaughtered its soul by saying that he was going to commercialise it.

Myrath’s sixth album ‘Karma’ is a difficult album to review for me, because I like it, but at the same time, it shows some developments that will make me approach future releases of the band with a reasonable degree of caution. If well-written and expertly arranged melodic metal is what you are after, ‘Karma’ is highly recommended. The album is full of huge melodic hooks and it might actually be even more varied than its two predecessors. And yet, as someone who has followed the band since their sophomore album ‘Desert Call’, I fear Myrath is slowly losing its identity.

Please allow me to explain what I mean by that. When I first heard Myrath, they overwhelmed me with their inventive, yet surprisingly listenable blend of progressive metal, power metal and prominent Tunisian ma’luf overtones in their rhythms and string arrangements. The progressive edge has largely been sanded off over time, with the excellent ‘Legacy’ and its follow-up ‘Shehili’ sounding more or less like a North-African take on Kamelot’s sound. So far, nothing shocking. But whether it’s a result of founding keyboard player Elyes Bouchoucha leaving or not, Myrath barely even sounds Tunisian anymore, save for some subtle touches.

However, as close as it gets sometimes, it’s not like Myrath has gone full European metal festival pop with heavy guitars on ‘Karma’. Album highlight ‘Child of Prophecy’ is a gorgeous progressive metal track with some of Malek Ben Arbia’s heaviest riffs on the album and a fantastic vocal performance by Zaher Zorgati. The exuberant opening salvo of ‘To the Stars’ and ‘Into the Light’ does an excellent job getting you excited for the album as well. Both are upper mid-tempo songs with a healthy dose of melody and a very cathartic chorus. These will surely work well on stage.

The moments that bother me the most about ‘Karma’ largely do so because of productional choices. The horns in ‘Words Are Falling’ sound awkward as hell. Don’t get me wrong: I love seventies soul almost as much as heavy metal, but they do nothing to enhance the song. The ridiculously loud piano is really distracting on the otherwise fairly good ‘Temple Walls’, while the AOR keyboards make the verses of ‘Let It Go’ sound very dated. One stylistic detour that does work, however, is ‘Candles Cry’. Its main riff almost sounds like a laid-back rock riff, which is enlarged by the rhythms, and the staccato vocal harmonies in its chorus are really cool.

While the overall tone of this review might come across as somewhat negative, ‘Karma’ is a good album overall. There is some great songwriting here, but I do feel that if Myrath keeps going even further into this direction, they will lose everything that makes them unique. And it probably doesn’t take more than a bit of melismatic singing here and some more prominent percussion there to get it back. Judged as a melodic power metal album without the history that Myrath has, however, ‘Karma’ is a good, surprisingly varied listening experience that Kamelot can learn a lesson or two from.

Recommended tracks: ‘Child of Prophecy’, ‘To the Stars’, ‘The Wheel of Time’, ‘Candles Cry’

Originally written for my Kevy Metal weblog