The Tunisians of 'Myrath' had not released an album since 2019 with the magnificent 'Shehili' which merged two musical cultures in a very beautiful way and which made it a sort of universal melodic and symphonic metal album. That same year, they also released the 'Live In Carthage' showing this public enthusiasm for their cause and which was very communicative to take us into this refreshing musical whirlwind. We now have in our hands the successor to 'Shehili', 'Karma', which saw the arrival of the new keyboardist 'Kevin Codfert' (ex-keyboardist of 'Adagio') who already gravitated around the group in the previous opuses as producer and additional musician and who officially replaced 'Elyes Bouchoucha' in 2022. After a first listen, we are carried throughout the album by unifying melodies which are immediately grafted into the head, the choruses and choruses immediately giving a desire to accompany them. The other characteristic, which for my part was the great strength of 'Myrath', is that this east/west fusion is less marked and that the oriental side is a little more blurred on this album which, on the one hand, their will certainly open up to a larger audience, but which, on the other hand, will certainly risk making them lose this universal label of world music, this absolutely not removing the fact that this album is a succession of tubes.
To convince you, I will already present to you the titles which were the subject of a single: first of all, 'Heroes' was presented in October 2023 and is a good example of this direct and effective which animates this last album with an addictive chorus (see the video above), then, 'Child of Prophecy', released in November 2023, was a magnificent power ballad which mixed a little more Eastern and Western influences (see the video here). This was followed by 'Let It Go' at the end of 2023 and 'Into the Light', at the beginning of 2024, which were absolute hits of melodic metal with a chorus bringing us back to the best of international variety from the 80s (see the video of 'Into the Light' here), then, 'Candles Cry' came to top it off a month ago with a new melodic brulot well calibrated to make us move to the rhythm of the music (see the video here). And the rest, no surprise, it's in line with these first five titles: we can add the hits 'To The Stars', 'Words Are Failing' with their unifying choruses but we can still note more orientalized sounds in 'Temple Walls' and 'The Empire', this does not take away from the fact that they also benefit from catchy melodic lines. We can also point out that 'The Wheel Of Time' brings a more moderate side with nice alternations of intensity throughout the track bringing a slight pinch of progressive. And to finish, 'Carry On' adds a melodic jewel to the whole in which 'Zaher Zorgatti' shows that he is still at the top vocally with his very expressive singing and this is valid for the whole of this latest opus.
In summary, with this latest album, the Tunisians of 'Myrath' have focused on efficiency with a succession of hits from the first to the last composition, while keeping this firepower and this enthusiasm that they know how to communicate to their audience, which will certainly make 'Karma' one of the best melodic metal albums of 2024... | |
