Album Review | MAYAN - Antagonise (English)

(c) Nuclear Blast Records

Released: 31th January 2014

Genre: Symphonic Death Metal

"Oh wow", I think to myself after two songs. This album is like a bomb that is hard to assimilate. Melodies, orchestra, growls and aggressiveness which have settled in the middle of my brain, no longer want to get out and haunt me in the most beautiful way. That could probably explain why the review didn’t show up here at the release date or by just one day. It’s simply impossible to assess "Antagonise" after only one pass.

However, it was clear after only one song that I like MaYaN and I have to buy a copy of this CD. I do not know why. Ah, yes: This is varied Symphonic Death Metal with progressive impact in a virtuoso, brutal and at the same time epic and dramatic way. That's never happened to me so fast until now, every one of my favorite bands has its time needed. But we all know that I'm on extreme and have a weakness for modern metal creations. We are in 2014 and I think that's fucking great.

There are many aspects that make MaYaN a unique band. They combine orchestra, classical singing and choirs with Death Metal and growls. And because that's not enough, they have a clean power metal singer and progressive riffs and melodies. Well, to throw everything in a pot and then to watch how the soup tastes shouldn’t be a challenge, though. However, this band has a distinct advantage: Here Mark Jansen is at work. And he has Laura Macrì, the renowned opera soprano from Italy, brought into the band. That must sound good, right? That's right, if you got used to the style.

The dutch-german-italian lineup has packed very extreme songs on this record that deals with current issues such as spy on the Internet and the NSA. However, in MaYaN we have no trace of overcharging awareness. One never has the feeling that the musicians necessarily have to pack everything in 4 minutes since pure instrumental parts or spoken passages are commonplace. The orchestral support and is not in the foreground and the singer dominates her craft and is not constantly annoying me with flashy notes higher than F5. Every single song is a masterpiece in itself and yet the tracks flow into each other the result is a clear line. Merge tempo changes, dramatic soprano vocals, deep growls and texts which give the government duly a kick in the ass melt into a musical symbiosis as I haven’t heard it like that before.
In most cases, such experiments fail. Not everyone is able to combine drama and brutality. However, you really have to get used to "Antagonise". The nice thing is: It actually goes pretty fast. And because the songs are complex and relatively long, you will have something from this album for a while.
"Antagonise" has just stepped “Hydra” straight in the ass. Dear Dutch, please stop creating such great music. My purse won’t thank me …

Rating: 9/10

Highlights: All songs