Stardate 11/28/2024 08:38 

The title 'Alien' perfectly depicts Kyyria, who were going in and out of boxes and then some. If you find crossovering in metal music hard, I bet this band and album will give you something to tackle. I find this album as one of those great summertime albums, that always work when the sun is shining! And whenever you want to feel sunlight in middle of polar nights' frozen wastes...

'Alien' basically alloys hard rock with metal. At times, it is rather heavy for hard rock, and often too soft for being metal. There are some heavy, driving and infectious grooves (no pun intended), that should make a listener to pick up one's bones and start moving looking like an idiot. These heavy-handed guitar riffing by Mikael "Tanner" Vehkaoja comes with lovely boom, but he throws in bluesy scales and all kinds of guitar tricks, giving it a kind of live vibe here and there. The rhythm section offers more boom. Mika "Gas" Karppinen (afterwards in HIM) belts out some sturdy beats, that is equally grooving (and more varying as in HIM). The bass guitar is rumbling and still vivid.

On vocals there's Ville Tuomi, who was know from his appearance on Amorphis' 'Tales from the Thousand Lakes' (1994). His recognizable, love/hate style high-pitched clean vocals are pretty similar here, but now he's definitely not as one-dimensional. He is very rhythmic, giving some nasty rapping, but also musical with his clean-as-heck voice. He later went to Sub-Urban Tribe, a modern groovy rock band. By the way, another Amorphis connections are bass guitar player Niclas Etelävuori and keyboardist Santeri Kallio. Talk about small (crop?) circles... The keyboards can be airy, mat-like, or some weird effects, like quirky alien stuff.

The closest thing to Kyyria I can think about are Waltari, another Helsinki-based out-of-the-boxes band. The Organization's (formerly known as Death Angel) debut album from 1993 is another one; enough metal to get metalheads interested, perhaps, but still "out there". TOC, formerly known as Throne Of Chaos, was the spiritual successor for Kyyria on their two latter albums. Anyway, Kyyria mixed hard rock, metal, funk and rap different to probably anyone else. Crap, I still didn't throw out the name Faith No More... But yeah, Waltari's the closest compass point, other are not that strong at all.

'Centerpiece' is a mid-paced groover, that should make you drop your defense. 'Mind the Light' has a warped hippie vibe thanks to the sitar (played by one Sami Yli-Sirniö...), 'P.O.E.' is a funky rap song, 'Sister Moon' is a sugary yet serious ballad, 'Inside out' is a banging fast song, and 'Peacock's Foot' resides one foot in epic metal realm. Yes, this is wide, daring, forward-thinking amalgamation of many a thing. It still holds well together, but certainly does not stagnate at any point.

The album was produced by German guy Siggi Bemm. Maybe he was chosen by not only his long-time work as a metal producer, but also because he produced Sentenced's 1996 album 'Down'. Or then because of the GUN Records connection. 'Alien' is one of the best-sounding platters I had heard up to. The range 1997 is incredibly wide. Everything is highly detailed and clean, yet booming and rough when needed. And that live vibe.

If you're going to have a drive in summertime, this will truly pimp your ride (definitely one of my most spun CD in my car stereo)! Kyyria was known to do some "porno metal", because they played live at erotic trade fair in Helsinki. Well, this certainly has "ooomph" and groove, so why not. Summer, bikini girls and ooomph rather than frostbite, fells and snow up to your forehead, right?! Hey, at least sometimes, huh!??

Rating: 9- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
06/20/2021 17:02

Related websites:
GUN Records website :: www.gunrecords.de

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Kyyria
(Sweden)

album cover
Alien
1. Centrepiece (03:34)
2. Mouthful of Dust (04:47)
3. Mind the Light (04:23)
4. P.O.E. (03:58)
5. Death Is Dressed for Me (04:05)
6. Sister Moon (05:25)
7. Tenant (03:39)
8. O'Right (04:46)
9. Inside out (02:37)
10. One White One Brown (04:57)
11. Peacock's Foot (04:55)
12. Vendetta (03:55)
= 00:51:01