Whyzdom
Of Wonders and Wars

I have been awarding gradually lower ratings to the French band Whyzdom for each album I have reviewed, much due to a lack of self-critique and delusions of grandeur in the later albums. I liked their album Blind? that I reviewed about a decade ago, but the subsequent albums have been increasingly irrelevant. Now it is time for a new one that takes us through history, into the distant future and that sort of thing, and the artwork is interesting. More direct and catchy are words I read, as well as more uptempo songs, something much needed as long and bombastic was mostly boring on the latest effort. So how about this good-looking new effort?

I think it is an album that will be familiar to those knowing the works of Whyzdom, but perhaps with a slightly fresher feel to it. I think this one feels a lot more alive than the latest effort that was a snoozefest of epic proportions, this one is catchier and cleverer. I also think the vocals are better this time, they were not as interesting last time around. I think she is more challenged this time, more varied and with more depth. Decent variation over the tracks but perhaps a bit long with a playing time over an hour.

Of Wonders and Wars can certainly be seen as a good album, I still think that Whyzdom has gotten a bit lost after that nice Blind?-effort with two pretty uninteresting releases. This one is a step in a better direction, the ending track is especially nice and rounds of a decent effort. Still, the ambition seems to be much larger than the actual ability of the band, and that leads to another album that is pretty easily forgotten. So, it may be good but it doesn’t really stand out in comparison with similar stuff, which is why I think that one will forget it fast and easily.

So, if you have liked what Whyzdom did before you will find this one most agreeable, maybe even great. There are, however better choices in the female fronted symphonic metal style and I would recommend any of them before checking out this one – but of course it is worth getting just for the cover, so how wrong can you really get with it?

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