My issue with Pyres’ vocal lines lies mostly in the way his cleans are constructed and performed. And just to be clear, Pyres is a competent singer so don’t expect any cringe-worthy vocal performance here. This is paradoxical given that the record places so much emphasis on the vocals. First, I feel that Pyres’ vocals and vocal melodies are somewhat the album’s weak link. However, I also believe that there is also room for improvement here, in order to make the leap from good album to masterpiece. There’s a lot to dig your teeth into in this album, and a lot to like too, especially if you are sucker for deeply melodic music which explores dark and melancholic moods, as I am. The complementary use of clean vocals and growls add further variety and dynamics to the music. This confers a dramatic feel to the music that forms the perfect background for Pyres’ theatrical and heartfelt vocals. I also appreciated the huge dynamics contained in nearly all songs that continuously swing from quiet piano/vocals passages to massive, wall-of-sound orchestrated climaxes. Pre-choruses, bridges, instrumental breaks, key and tempo changes are all used craftily to spice things up and retain the listener’s interest, for the most part successfully. It is clear that a lot of thoughts went into the songwriting and arrangements, as the band strives to stay as much as possible away from formulaic song structures. I really liked the songs’ rich harmonic structures created by Shankar’s opulent keyboard arrangements and Kosto’s clever guitar work that alternates groovy rhythmical riffs to contrapuntal melodic playing. As I said, the album covers a lot of ground, which is what made it so interesting and appealing to me as soon as I first listened to it.ĭigging deeper brings even more satisfaction. Doom metal is another influence, as the tempos are often dilated and the album is drenched in a feeling of moody melancholia that reminds me of acts like Swallow the Sun. At the same time, there are also influences from extreme metal, blackened death metal in particular, that are manifest in Pyres’ expressive growls and in the occasional explosions of blast beats in the songs’ most intense passages. There is a strong focus on epic but melancholic melodies, bringing to mind dark progressive/power metal bands like Kamelot and Evergrey. Cinematic and orchestral music is certainly one of them, as Shankar’s layered keyboards paint a rich symphonic tapestry that weaves classical and filmscore music together with a contemporary rock/metal approach.
His Seven Spires bandmate Chris Dovas appears as session drummer.īroadly speaking, The Cold Embrace of the Light falls into the symphonic metal category, although the album covers a lot of ground, bringing in multiple influences and experimenting with diverse styles. Shankar also plays bass on the album, while Jack Kosto (Seven Spires) handles the guitar work and is also in charge of mixing and mastering. Keyboards and orchestrations are in the capable of hands of Vikram Shankar, whose work with Redemption, Carthagods and most recently Silent Skies has attracted lots of praise in the specialized press. The band is the brainchild of vocalist John Pyres, who played keyboards for Among the Giants and Lycanthro. Threads of Fate’s line-up is comprised of musicians who had important experiences in other metal acts before they joined forces here. Don’t let the band’s debutante status fool you, though. Back in March, Layered Reality Productions released this very interesting debut album by US symphonic metal band Threads of Fate.
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