Myrath - Desert Call                   8/10

By Jacob Brown

Do you remember the song "Egypt" by Symphony X?  It was one of the few bright spots for the band on V: The New Mythology Suite, so it is possible you do not remember it.  The point here is that song took the typical Symphony X sound and seasoned it with some mild ethnic flavors.  This is the approach of Myrath, though the Arabic flavors here are much more pronounced.  In doing a bit of research on the band, I learned they actually were a Symphony X cover band early in their existence - an influence they have apparently not been able to shake.  Myrath is a very young band, yet they have quite a mature sound given their age and the fact this is only their second full-length release, Desert Call.

I like a lot of the things the band does.  Malek BenArbia has an approach quite similar to Michael Romeo of Symphony X with the same type of melodic swing to his riffs and likes to finish them in the same spindly, legato manner, but he brings a stronger guitar tone and a simply more prominent presence.  He has serious skill and shines throughout the album like with his slow, sprawling solo on "Silent Cries", but the rhythm section of Saif Quhibi and Anis Jouini are easily my favorite and the most original aspect of the band.  The excellent polyrhythmic contributions of Quhibi account for a lot of the ethnic feel to the album while the subtle yet effective embellishments of Jouini appear in all the right places.  These two can be heard throughout the album, though they are at their best on the scorcher "Forever and a Day" and excellent "Empty Word".  Zaher Zorgatti also makes the songs have an ethnic bent as he effortlessly shifts between a standard, smooth delivery and a more intoned, Arabic style with the appropriate runs (see "Desert Call") while Elyes Bouchoucha uses his synths to imbue majestic atmosphere in the songs as well as provide additional ethnically-slanted instruments.  I must admit, however, that I am not quite sure where actual instruments are used in place of digital synth-based substitutes.

The songwriting here is certainly effective albeit not overly adventurous.  There are no terribly angular rhythms, twisted song structures or jarring time changes.  Those elements are on the album, but they are just not presented in such a blatant, in-your-face-because-we-are-progressive manner as you would find on other releases in the style.  There is only one song over ten minutes; otherwise the rest of the material is roughly six minutes in length.  I would suspect those of you who do not realize the instrumental prowess of the band by the ten-minute centerpiece "Silent Cries" will have no doubts about their ability as that song moves through its moody, instrumental sections and catchy chorus on the way to its soulful conclusion.  That song aside, there is not a lot of noodle-y, instrumental wankery.  The band definitely gets its shots in instrumentally, but they also seem to interject those moments within solid songs rather than structure the songs around those sections.  I would also suspect the whole album to be much more palatable to casual fans while still being well within the confines of "progressive" music.

The pensive, ballad-y "Memories" does little for my ears, but its follow-up "Ironic Destiny" and "No Turning Back" are both great.  They lean a bit further away from the ethnic feel of earlier songs, yet they also do a much better job of using a big, catchy chorus - a trade-off I find to be worse for the band but does not ruin these songs.  "Shockwave" has this weird 80s metal riff that sounds like something Accept would write on an otherwise standard prog song, though it ends on a strong note.  There is also a bonus song on my copy, "Hard Times" - a song not worth the extra cash to pick up a new copy of the album.  I am of the opinion that quality trumps originality.  If you can do it better than Symphony X, then by all means do it better than Symphony X.  You will likely have to be of the same opinion in order to stomach large parts of Desert Call, but those of you able to do so will find a well-written and performed album and a band to keep fixed on which your metal radar.

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