ALBUM REVIEW: Revolt – Dymytry

Czech rockers DYMYTRY release their first English record Revolt, which has the potential to appeal to fans of southern rock, classic heavy metal, even some symphonic and post-grunge fans. There are a fair amount of dramatics, which will entice some who are looking to ham it up while enjoying the glory of bellow-along vocals, shredding guitars and blasting drums.

Title track Revolt is a little cookie cutter in places but has a blast messing with some daft sounds and ideas. After having a re-recording from the original into English, it’s very commendable how the record has come out. Vocally it’s very strong, and it’s clear that Alex Ljubic has a great range that suits the band’s tone perfectly. What’s strange is the marketing of this record as psy-core. The genre, to most people who’ve heard of it, is hugely electronic and sits much more on the EDM spectrum than anything remotely metal based. It feels like they’ve chosen a genre label that seems to just sound cool, but doesn’t articulate what their music is at all, and only makes it harder to judge exactly what DYMYTRY are looking to achieve in their sound.

Nevertheless, 300 has a decent mix of solid riffing, electronic melodies and dense drumming. Likewise, there’s some djenty groove to Never Gonna Die, and a lot of experimentation between heavy metal and electronica that sometimes lands and sometimes misses. Fans of SABATON, SHINEDOWN and IRON MAIDEN might be into this record, as there’s plenty of dramatic story telling and lots to relate to and read into. Harmonies and shrieking guitars appear on songs like Rise And Shine and the verbose Chernobyl 2.0, and the latter of the two might be the band’s biggest tune on the record. It’s full of emotion, a dark warning layered in imagery which doesn’t pull its punches in the harder edge of their sound before providing a harrowing final moment of giga counter crackling.

There’s some good stuff if you’re into this more grandiose metal style, and there’s no denying that what DYMYTRY has to offer will satisfy both classic metal fans and younger fans looking for their own iteration of metal’s stadium-packing heyday. However, there are some lower points on this record too. Until The World Knows Why starts to feel like a repeat of the songs that came before it, too close in its complete composition to really stand out and feels more like filler. Touchdown has some fun with dubstep and some wooping guitars, children chorus chanting, and inspirational, macho bravado of taking down your enemies.

Tick Tock is, for all intents and purposes, a METALLICA rip off – in vocal tone, style, and even in some of the lyrics and themes from Frantic that have been widely documented. It’s well played and all, but the originality in the solo, for example, and the range of the vocals, all feel overshadowed by the close comparison to one of the best-known bands in the world. A cover of the ROCKWELL’s Somebody’s Watching Me, is either going to be right up your street if you enjoy well thought out covers, but others might find it a little too much if you’ve not gelled with the rest of Revolt.

It’s clear that DYMYTRY are here to uplift and show their listeners a good time, which, in a live setting, would obviously be great fun. However, there aren’t many points of originality, as there’s the same on offer from various other bands who are going harder, and that are more refined in making themselves distinct from the crowd. As a record, Revolt is unfortunately less than the sum of it’s parts.

Rating: 6/10

Revolt is set for release on January 14th via AFM Records.

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