Review: Atomic Symphony – HYBRIS

Style: Progressive Metal, Symphonic Metal (clean vocals)
Review by: Doug
Country: Switzerland
Release date: 8 July, 2022

I came across one of the singles from this album, “Chimera,” when it was released about a month ago, and I was instantly hooked. So to be perfectly honest, I’ve been looking forward to the full album release and I’m not coming into this review with a fully unbiased blank slate. That said, I’ve also listened to Atomic Symphony’s prior album Redemption in the meantime and was not nearly as impressed by it, so HYBRIS will still have to prove to me that the rest of its contents can live up to the expectations set by the teaser single.

HYBRIS is the first half of a promised two-part concept album. The album is structured a little unusually, with two epics over ten minutes long taking up the first non-overture track slots and more than half the album’s runtime between them, before closing with three shorter offerings. Although there’s plenty to enjoy throughout, the two epics (“Nightfall” and “Oath Taker”) are the clear headliners and foci of the album, and I would normally expect to see them pushed into the latter half in a prog album like this in order to provide more of a climax. I think therein lies my only significant gripe about the album; even though I enjoy it all the way through, the middle songs “Metamorphosis” and “HYBRIS” feel a lot less exciting in comparison to the first half. “Chimera” borders on sharing that “middle track syndrome” as well, despite being the album closer. It has the softest and most gentle tone of the whole album, and although it’s still seven and a half minutes long, it has a much more straightforward structure than either of the ten-minute epics. But ultimately it does provide a good ending, both because it’s an amazing piece in its own right and because it builds to a suitably epic and emotional conclusion. Perhaps this layout is simply a consequence of the storytelling demands of a concept album, and I have to wonder if it will flow better once the second half is released and it can all be played front-to-back at once.

I find the style of the album interesting and kind of unusual as well. I tend to strongly associate symphonic elements with power metal, but Atomic Symphony lean towards a much more “traditional prog” approach here, with a pretty high level of rhythmic complexity and a greater focus on complementary layered instrumental parts than on hard-and-heavy shredding. Some power metal trappings are scattered throughout, but the band bill themselves as a symphonic rather than power metal band, and I think that’s reflected accurately in their music. It’s a fairly unique type of sound; Epica sounds the closest out of the big-name symphonic metal groups, although still leaning harder on the power metal side. For closer matches, I turn to a couple of lesser known bands: Ostura is one (specifically their wildly underrated sophomore album The Room) and Darkwater is reasonably close as well if you swap female vocals for male. But I can’t think of many that sound quite this way.

Musically speaking, HYBRIS showcases the band firing on all cylinders. Singer Jasmin Baggenstos has a beautiful and powerful voice and is, unsurprisingly, the obvious standout (I think it’s contractually required for woman-led symphonic bands to have an amazing singer). But none of the other elements are noticeably lacking even by comparison to her excellent performance, and overall the album achieves an excellent balance among all its parts, in terms of both musical dynamics and how much focus is given to each in the composition. The band produces a wonderfully deep, heavy sound, complementing Baggenstos’s voice which seems to favor the lower registers. Even from the first listen, the dark tone drew me immediately into the melancholy atmosphere of the music and the story being told.

Although I would still rate “Chimera” as the top song on the album, HYBRIS more than satisfies the expectations set by my first experience of the single. It’s an excellent second outing for Atomic Symphony, showing a lot of growth and improvement over a debut that, to be clear, was reasonably solid to begin with. I think the album’s flow may have suffered structurally a little bit for being split in two, but I find the experience so far to be very well made and plenty enjoyable, and I eagerly await the as-yet-untitled part 2.

Recommended tracks: Nightfall, Oath Taker, Chimera
Recommended for fans of: Symphony X, Epica, Unleash the Archers
You may also like: Ostura, Darkwater, Divine Ascension, Caveat
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | YouTube | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page

Label: Independent

Atomic Symphony is:
– Jasmin Baggenstos (vocals)
– Roberto Barlocci (guitars)
– Carlo Beltrame (keyboards)
– Thomas Spoegler (bass, guitars)
– Marc Friedrich (drums, backing vocals)