Kill me now.

Lyriel - Paranoid Circus

Release: 2010
April 1, 2011 (re-release)
Genre: Female-fronted folk/symphonic metal
Label: AFM Records (re-release)
Length:

Nick's Rating: 3.5/5

For those of you following my "project," consider the Cage the Elephant review a Monday post and this a Tuesday post.

So, for my second review this week... I chose this. Quite the departure from Cage the Elephant, huh? (And why not? They say variety is the spice of life.) Compared to that album's hard-edged alternative rock, Lyriel's Paranoid Circus is a series of metal songs that I... suppose are folk metal? That's what I'm told, anyway, but I don't know what that means. I guess it would be a struggle to turn "Electric Light Orchestra and a carnival's metal-ish third wheel" into a real genre name. But there you are. Lyriel, to me, share more in common with carny-rock acts like Vermillion Lies, Rasputina, or, God forbid, Emilie Autumn than they do with... Sol Invictus, or something. (Not like The Dresden Dolls, though, who are too Hot Topic-ready to really be carnies, if you get what I'm saying.)

Though, at the same time, what's in a genre or even an artist comparison? Someone posted a comment on the title track's video calling them out (I assume it was a call-out) for being like Nightwish. I don't see it. I guess if your band is metal and you have a lead singer with no Y chromosome and even think about string instruments that aren't guitar or bass, you're like Nightwish. (If you think about bass, though, you're a pussy for not mixing it out and making your music ear-ravaging.) Of course, this is stated with derision. Which is utter bullshit. I'm a bit cold toward Nightwish, too, okay? Let's not pretend they're my favorite band. But this comparison is like saying that the Rolling Stones are similar to Vanden Plas because both feature guitars, drums, bass, and a male lead singer. To be sure, Lyriel have a few things in common with Nightwish, but they are not close enough on the genre level to make this a legitimate comparison.

Speaking of the title track of the video and female-fronted "opera metal" (which is a plenty bullshit saying in the same way that saying that Liz Phair's music is meaningful or saying that Liz Phair's music is meaningless is a bullshit saying), I'm honestly surprised that the lesbian fanservice is rather... new to the genre's videos. How was this not thought of before? Was it so the bands could remain goth-friendly by depicting the world as, by and large, claustrophobic and loveless? Which is really what the video does. The sexuality is only minor and uncomfortable, not so much superbly erotic. Slightly sexual, yes, but only enough to briefly distract you from how discomfiting the thought of being captured by two strangers who live in your mirror (which is a severe paranoia-inducer) is. So, uh, it's pretty possible to have something like that, which seems like a natural fit for the genre, and still preserve the goth-friendliness of the music.

Which it has in spades, by the way, but in more of a way of borrowing from The Cure than neo-goth things. There are occasionally thunderous drums and electronically-treated sounds throughout; really, to me, the title track is the most natural song on the album... and definitely my favorite, and not even just for the video. To be fair, this isn't much of a dose of capsaicin compared to most things in the genre, and I guess that it's even pretty low on the Scoville compared to their other material, from what I've read? But I've never heard any of it to verify myself, so I guess skip that for now. There are no great revelations to be found in the music, sure, but this isn't Diablo Swing Orchestra or whoever. As ever, originality is at a premium, in a way. Better that they be unoriginal and unknown, I say.

But really, that is what stops me really caring about this record: the lack of any really original ideas. There isn't much to say about this record that you can't say about another one, and little that it says that another record doesn't say better. There is just not enough to comment on here; nothing stands out anywhere near enough save the title track to save it from being just slightly above average. There is, however, one thing that weighs it down: the beginning track. The first track of the album is an intro, featuring a spoken word welcoming the listener to the Paranoid Circus. Unfortunately, there is little to no need to have this stupid thing in there. So, why is it there? It's not like this is a concept album as far as I can tell, so it's just some kind of dippy joke that's not funny at all. They could have at least tried some kind of Emerson, Lake & Palmer thing. "Welcome back, my friends, to the show that never ends" could actually be less a goofy intro and more a legitimate threat in the hands of this outfit. I guess bonus points to the the man who narrates for also inserting a Hesse quote in the middle of the album.

But beyond that, so what? The songs are all decent, but not interesting enough to make the album anywhere near great. It's an interesting listen, yes. Many albums are. Could I recommend it? Sure. I'm just not sure I'd be any good at that. It's really kind of a strange album to look at... probably because enough people seem interested in tarring it with epithets like "Nightwish knockoff" because it has female vocals. Yeah, okay, I am sort of saying "the world is not quite ready for this." Well, at least not the metal world, which is still full enough of arrogant elitist scumbags that this will get flak for being something it's not.