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Yyrkoon: Unhealthy opera

12/11/08 || Daemonomania

If you are currently hailing France for their recent metal output, don’t let me interrupt you. I would hate to throw someone off in mid-hail.

That aside, if you’ve heard of semi-defunct frogs Yyrkoon it was probably because of “Occult medicine,” an album that certainly stirred up the metal masses back in 2004. “OC” was a modern take on death-thrash, with a HEAVY fucking production job that made the drums, guitars, and vocals seem to weigh several tons apiece. There were blazing thrash riffs, soaring solos, interesting drum patterns, and vocals that ranged from a bowel-shaking low to a scratchy high. Throw in an instrumental track, a few half-attempts at clean vocals, and mispronounced Lovecraftian lyrics with grammar difficulties. The result was damn good, and “Schizophrenic carnage” still slimes its way into my ear canal on a regular basis.

“Unhealthy opera” is a continuation of where they left off two years prior, minus a bit of the experimentation and freshness that made “OC” so popular. The production is still like being under a bed where Roseanne Barr and John Goodman are banging. The solos still fly like an eagle over the ass-kicking double bass insanity. And the growls are still low and semi-comprehensible, like, uh….like a crazy person whispering to themselves? Whatever.

Just because Yyrkoon put their heads down and go straight into assault mode doesn’t make the disc any less entertaining, however, it’s just that you’ll pick a few favorite tracks that epitomize their style and stick with those. The songs don’t flow together (for the most part) to create a beautiful tapestry of unicorns impaling hunting dogs in fields of aether. You won’t hear a whole new song with each new listen, though there is a somewhat oppressive and creepy atmosphere throughout. You’ll just hear Yyrkoon trying to boot you in the butthole.

And boot they do. After a spooky little intro called “Something breathes” (thanks to small permeation’s in the spandex), one track after the next sallies forth to decimate the listener. “From the depths” is tremendous, “Screaming shores” is a neckbreaker, there’s a great scream-along chorus in “Horror from the sea” (with a solo from the King Diamond dude that rules), the combination of the soothing acoustic interlude “Lair…” and the punishing “…of Madness” is rad, and “Injecting dementia” makes one last run for Alsace-Lorraine before things close out. There’s a bonus track on here called “Signs” that has some nasally clean vocals in it, which I always skip.

I was nervous that they’d go in a more proggy direction given some of the tracks at the end of “OC,” but it appears they went on a barahutahl vector instead with this album. Probably why it wasn’t so well-recognized, but if you like your death with (un)healthy doses of Cthulhu and thrash this would be a great addition to your collection. Seems like the dudes lacked motivation to continue Yyr’ing, however, so you probably won’t hear any more from ‘em. A pity.

And check out their website – pretty cool for poorly motivated individuals. Now back to your hailing.

7.5 French-fried octopi out of 10.

Information
Released: 2006
Label: Osmose
Website: www.yyrkoon.net
Band
Stéphane Souteryand: vocals, guitar
Voctproen Vilchez: bass
Laurent Harrouart: drums
Geoffrey Gautier: guitars

Tracklist
01. Something Breathes
02. Unhealthy Opera
03. From the Depths
04. Avatar Ceremony
05. Temple of Infinity
06. Abnormal Intrusion (in your ass)
07. Screaming Shores
08. The Book
09. Horror From the Sea
10. Lair…
11. … of Madness
12. Injecting Dementia
13. Signs

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