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Band:Lyzanxia Album:Unsu Record Company:Listenable Writer: MistressSpin Media: My Space Click Album Cover To Buy Now

Lyzanxia’s “Unsu” is “pretty” metal. Very clean and perfect in every way. Instruments, Vocals, Production—flawless. Even mathematically, “Unsu” is delivering! Some metal music can be mathematical, some styles demand it. But other metal styles rely on something more primitive—passion, aggression, power.

There is nothing alive in Lyzanxia’s “Unsu”. They have crossed into another level of existence in this album. And in the process, they have lost some passion, aggression, power in their delivery. So one would have to ask oneself with this album the age old question: what approach to music grabs you and makes you like it? I like music that leaves an impression, genre indifferent. Leaving an impression means that it affected me emotionally and I felt something. Like it or hate, I felt something.

Lyzanxia’s approach comes off to me as too perfect. Almost mechanical in the fact that the methodology is perfect but still it really doesn’t reach me emotionally. And I attribute that in part to their thorough exploration of each change and their very meticulous and deliberate way in taking the listener through each progression in the song.

There are two vocalists in Lyzanxia, and they are always contrasting. One is high, one is low. One is growl, one is melodic. One is screaming, one is whispering. And it all blends and fits into its place perfectly.

Lyzanxia’s production is flawless. Everything is boomy and filling and in it’s place. Have you ever been at a show where a band didn’t go on stage because of “technical difficulties”? Lyzanxia’s sound with “Unsu” is completely digitally dependent. If Lyzanxia had technical difficulties, they wouldn’t be able to perform. More than half of their delivery, which is weak to begin with, is in the production.

I’m just not buying what they are trying to sell. “Unsu” does not incite anything in me. That’s great. You can play perfect. You can produce perfect. You can have perfect music. Doesn’t mean it’s something people are going to be incited to run out and buy an album or incur the expense of a concert. I found myself feeling annoyed with Lyzanxia. I was utterly bored. It was almost like that little dog that keeps yapping and sounds ferocious on the outside, but on the inside, it’s anything but. They claim influences such as Metallica, Motorhead, and Pantera. But these bands elicited a response from millions of listeners and still to this day continue to do so. There is nothing eliciting from this album. The first time I listened to the disc, I honestly had no idea how long the album had been off for before I realized I needed to hit the replay button. That means it just couldn’t hold my attention.

If the listener is appreciative of mathematical or everything in its place metal that has been very well polished and cleaned, they are going to love Lyzanxia’s melodic approach to hardcore nu-metal. I would even go so far as to say “Unsu” takes a fabulous stab at being a progressive nu-metal band. But whereas people criticize nu-metal for being mindless in the composition of the songs, I have to say I like quite a bit of it simply because in nu-metal’s primitiveness is still a driving passion. Lyzanxia takes an intelligent and structured approach to nu-metal but just doesn’t have the basic, primitive aggression of nu-metal. “Unsu” is, ultimately, a beautiful, refined, polished piece of cubic zirconium.

Band:Lyzanxia Album:Unsu Record Company:Listenable Writer: MistressSpin Media: My Space Click Album Cover To Buy Now

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