Myrath, Shehili

The last months have been rather slow in terms of albums I was interested in and also heat seems to have brought a bit of a writer's block. I tried three times to review Dream Theater's latest album and found myself overwhelmed by it (I love it, I just can't bring myself to actually dissect it in a review). So I ultimately decided to review something I wasn't particularly enthusiastic about, given how disappointed I was by their last release, which is Myrath's last album, Shehili.

I have to say as far as disappointments go, this was very close to being one of them, narrowly saved by the ending. Most of the album follows a certain pattern, one that I am less than fond of, and they rarely break it. For example, if you're missing the Kamelot syndrome since Kamelot themselves are trying to move away from it, you can find it in Myrath's Shehili in all its might and glory. With a few exceptions, the tracks start in such a promising way and I'm so excited about what's to come and then it dies down and goes into a cheese-fest. The instrumental is engaging, but the melodic line is very swoony. I won't even go into the lyrics, I think we've established in the previous review that they're not Myrath's strongest feat. 

But the most frustrating part is that I feel like Myrath has abandoned most of the progressiveness and were content with generic metal with a dash of oriental. Some found it fun and catchy, I personally found it neither. The themes are dark enough to drown any positivity the music might have (bombings or losing one's sanity don't exactly match with the generally gregarious tone of the melodies anyway) and there is nothing I could hum after listening to the album for a few times. 

I just found it insipid and forgettable. I don't necessarily need an album to be deep or dark in order for me to enjoy it, but Shehili seems made on the assembly line. It kind of lacks soul too, Zaher Zorgati sounds bored for the most part, even when he's singing about deeply sensitive themes, which is too bad because he has a nice warm voice and I think he could do a lot more with it. There is much more emotion in his oriental chants and I personally would prefer if he would focus on that style of singing, he does a much better job at it. 

There's also the issue of their choruses. They generally do a terrible job at creating engaging memorable refrains, and most of the tracks on Shehili make no exception. Like I said before, the instrumental is pretty decent and sometimes the verses are too. But everything falls apart at the refrain, it's like they pull a switch and another band comes in. I can't stand that amount of cheesiness and shallowness, I just can't. 

Thankfully there are a few moments where they break away from that pattern, especially towards the end of the album. Stardust actually starts off in an interesting manner and not even the dreaded chorus manages to destroy it. It's slower than the rest of the songs on Shehili, but I feel like it has more weight, the melody is pleasant and the orchestra uplifting and of course, there is sensitivity and warmth (which is what I think this album is sorely missing). We shall not talk about the lyrics, though, it's better this way. 

Mersal is pretty good too. I'm always happy when I hear more of their ethnic style, not necessarily because I think it represents Myrath, but because they seem to be doing a much better job at it than when they go for Euro-metal. 

Darkness arise is rather dramatic and engaging and has more variety than the entire album put together. There are some grunts, a classic Deep Purple-style keyboard solo, a guitar solo and most importantly, very little cheese. It's determined and has purpose and that makes it one of the best songs of Shehili. 

If you can get through the rather discouraging first half, there's something nice to listen to in the second part. It still suffers from most of Myrath's common problems, but at least it's appealing and has something to hook the listener, even for the slightest bit. It definitely doesn't make up for the dullness of the other tracks, but I think it's better than Legacy was. Or I'm in a more forgiving mood.

 In any way, I should probably get used to it because it seems the cheesy insipid choruses and dispassionate singing are here to stay. In fact worse, not only to stay, but become representative for Myrath's releases, which is a damn shame because this band had so much potential and I feel like they're wasting it on generic corny crap. If they really love Kamelot so much, maybe they might not want to copy the worst in them?