Conor Fynes 'More Than You Expect' - Nyia (6/10)

Being introduced to the Polish band Nyia through their debut album 'Head Held High', it could be said that I was a little disappointed- to put it diplomatically- even though I knew nothing of the band, nor had I heard anything before that. The production values were awful, the songs never went anywhere, and overall, it was a fairly poor effort that was only made hopeful by the fact that some of the musicianship that the band expressed was pretty good. Moving onto the band's second album 'More Than You Expect', I was now expecting next to nothing from this band, although I could only hope that they had done something with their sound to improve it. Although Nyia's sophomore still does not reach a level of excellence, it is one of those albums that is a massive upgrade in virtually every respect from its predecessor. Changing their lineup, improving the songwriting, and even sharpening their once shoddy production, Nyia's second album finally shows the band making something worthwhile.

As I stated in my review of 'Head Held High', Nyia were good death metal musicians, and even had some experimental flairs going on for them that appeared to be plucked from the Gorguts tree. With 'More Than You Expect', I would like to add Voivod and Meshuggah to Nyia's list of apparent influences. Especially in the guitars, it is common for the musicians here to go from high pitched dissonant riffs, into a more band-centered observation of strange rhythms. The musicianship is much better this time around, and while the production still is not great, it is possible to hear what is actually going on in the music now. The bass guitar has been turned up noticeably, and that helps to give the band a nicer range of sound. Also, one of the weakest aspects of the debut (the vocals) have been upgraded this time with a new vocalist, whose growls and screams are still not great, but his clean vocals are at least decent to hear.

The songs still often feel a little short for their own good and even underdeveloped in parts, and the album's flow is still a little jagged. Nyia has impressed me here by the fact of how much they were able to improve from the previous effort however, so they can be congratulated for that much. 'More Than You Expect' still is not a great album, but a good exploration of progressive death metal it is.

Conor Fynes 'Head Held High' - Nyia (2/10)

In my search of obscure progressive metal from around the world, I came across this Polish band; Nyia, whose name apparently comes from an ancient demon of death. With this fairly formulaic name choice out of the way, I can briefly mention that the band came out with two albums before becoming inactive. While I always hope to find albums and music out there that blows my mind, or albums that I can recommend to other music lovers out there, Nyia's debut 'Head Held High' is not one such album. Although the band's Gorguts- esque brand of experimentation with the death metal sound can be lauded and appreciated, this brief and rough album seems to only ever hint at good things, without actually making them happen.

Nyia's style seems to follow the setup laid out a decade earlier by Gorguts with their 'Obscura' album; dissonant riffs, barking death vocals, and the general sense that these musicians are making no effort to make their music accessible in any shape or form. However, as far as the masterpiece 'Obscura' went, it had that unrelenting sense of originality and pioneering vigour on its side, and each song was given time to flesh out and develop into a quasi-jazz metal powerhouse. To Nyia's credit, it would be unfair to call them a Gorguts clone, as they do have a heavier grind sound to them as well, but I am finding that Nyia is not doing much new with the sound. In terms of the actual musicianship of the band, it is clear that these guys are all very good at what they do (with the possible exception of vocalist Bogdan Kondracki, whose scream passes me as being soulless) but the sound is held back greatly by some fairly horrible production. Considering that the music is fairly technically accomplished, it is a real shame that the recording quality obscures most of what is really happening. It is really unfortunate that the album is hurt so much by its production, although I can't imagine there would be much more than only a mediocre progressive death metal album here otherwise. The songs are all very brief, and never go very far. And on the subject of vocals, Bogdan Kondracki's mix of growling and mild speaking hurts the instrumentation, especially due to the fact that it is mixed higher than any of the instruments.

Nyia's debut is a poor album for many reasons, although there are good things- like the technicality- that show potential for the act. Luckily, the very aptly titled sophomore 'More Than You Expect' would be a massive improvement over this.