Tyrannos - Spears Of The Aten

U.K.’s Tyrannos storm forward with their debut EP, “Spears Of The Aten” which is a short collection of progressive death metal. While not as ‘Opeth’ progressive or ‘A Forest of Stars’ progressive, Tyrannos does have a few moments that do impress on the album. 

The opening ‘Beneath The Pharonic Necropolis’ has a bit of a bombastic sound, being very guitar and drum focused while pushing the vocals back a bit with a bit of a doom laden touch in the vein of early Paradise Lost, going between the growls and spoken word passages along with very mournful guitar tones. One can certainly hear a bit of very early Septicflesh in there too. Heavier tracks like ‘Cycle Of Idols’ churn right along with more clean singing, but it almost seems dwarfed by the heavy riffs that bombard over and over. ‘Tyrant’s Bane’ finally shakes things up a bit by adding in the symphonic elements before breaking more towards the death metal. One thing listeners will notice is that Tyrannos tend to stay on a bit of a one track pace- never really quite going into funeral doom territory but also not really creating any speedy, ferocious tracks either. Everything sounds pretty even paced throughout the album.

Finally there is ‘Sun Disc Cataclysm’ which really brings in the progressive elements a bit more. If one felt the music was a little stale on the earlier track, here Tyrannos add a bit more time, a few more shifts in pace and style, from proggy bass moments to eastern riffs, to really bring out a strong track to enjoy. If one could get more of the bombastic throes of something like this, then Tyrannos could really have something going for them here. 

Ultimately, the big focus of the album is the guitar solos and the vocals which will draw listener attention in enough but Tyrannos need to definitely step up their work in order to make a big splash in the metal scene with so many other big names around them in the progressive death metal genre that have a more interesting approach. Thankfully, all the pieces are there; they just need to put them together.

3 / 5 STARS