Occult Medicine

Whether the result of restless eclecticism or, more likely, the inability to pick a direction and just stick with it, French extreme metal ensemble Yyrkoon have altered their musical style with virtually every album, moving from simplistic black metal, to ambient/dark metal, to progressive thrash, and finally speedy and intense death metal for 2004's Occult Medicine. Also, as was the case with prior efforts, Occult Medicine shows a band often getting by on technical displays of pyrotechnics, more so than actual compositional inspiration. Though not at first, since, following a brief intro to start the heart beating, Yyrkoon unleash a trio of positively decapitating death machines in "Doctor X," "Censored Project" and "Blasphemy." Along with sheer, giddy velocity, these feature precisely picked but always sludge-thick guitars deeply thudding, but mechanically exact drums, and profoundly guttural death-croaks, efficiently annihilating any sign of the clean vocals heard on past albums. Four songs in, the title track finally takes a break from this inexorable onslaught to build from atmospheric voices and synths to a more measured, groove-death rhythm, yet surrenders little, if any, intensity in the bargain. And then, all of a sudden — it's over! Well, it's not, actually; it's just that Occult Medicine's remaining six tracks tend to merge into an indistinct blur of interchangeable bottom-scraping riffs and melodic solo guitar flights, which, for all their reliably frenetic death/thrash mix, leave the listener grasping for his memory by the time the sadly prophetic closing number "Erase the Past" rolls around. Simply put, for a band so adept at discovering new strains of metallic expression, Yyrkoon could use a little more variety on this one album. Here's hoping they grasp that wherever they choose to travel next.