Meyvn
Splintered Skies
KillZone
Original wankstas
Austin's Meyvn make very cool nü-thrash paradiddle power-prog metal and remind me yet again that Dream Theater have to be one of the biggest influences on modern metal that I have no desire to listen to. Them and Tool. Hey, Ella Fitzgerald was a huge influence on jazz artists and I never want to listen to her either. Screw Ella. Give me Nancy Wilson or Sarah Vaughan any day over Ella. Hell, give me Anita O'Day, June Christy, or Keely Smith! And screw Ray Charles too. Is there anything on earth more boring than listening to a Ray Charles album? Oh yeah, there is. The excruciating displeasure of listening to a Nina Simone album. It's like listening to a bullfrog in a coma. With head trauma! And bronchitis!
Wait, where was I? Right, Meyvn. They rock! Crazy, hi-tech, YouTube-ready guitar solos—dizzying friggin' solos—insanely catchy choruses, and enough good ideas and fresh takes on progressive metal to fill three albums. Which might be my only caveat. They do go on so. Save something for the follow-up, boys. I chalk it up to youthful masturbatory exuberance. These kids have pep. Such energy and such squeaky clean reverence for and adherence to all things metal gives me hope for the future. And they write actual honest-to-god songs. And they have a singer who can really sing! These elements are hardly a given in the pyrotech-metal underworld. Seriously good stuff. Ella still blows, though. —Scott Seward
