Style: progressive metal, melodic death metal, metalcore? (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Devin Townsend, Gojira, Meshuggah
Country: France
Release date: 11 October, 2024
On a long enough timeline, everything exhausts inspiration from its Source. Dream Theater combining the technicality and dynamics of 70s prog rock with metal sensibilities was really cool and novel for the time, but unfortunately led to millions of prog bands going “Dude, there should be a 13/28 and 3/4 alternating section, and then a little keyboard interlude.” The bigger the band, the more copycats are going to come out of the woodwork in a vain attempt to capture what makes their inspiration great. Omnerod likely studied the hell out of Coal-era Leprous and most of Devin Townsend’s infinite body of work to achieve a sound they were happy with. But it takes more than a cursory glance at one’s inspirations to really figure out what makes them great.
Furthermore, I believe that prog is all about pushing the boundaries of where your inspirations dare not touch. Instead of going in the more melodic direction like Einar’s band of Norwegians did, Omnerod decided to add in just the right amount of dissonance to make The Amnesal Rise extra spicy. Nor is there anything wrong with becoming a worship band, so long as you have a good sense of humor about it: Atavistia decided to do Time II better than Jari did, after all. Kozoria, much to my dismay, fall into my least favorite category of “bands with obvious inspiration.” The category that’s devoid of inspiration.
It sounds harsh, but I also don’t mean it to be completely insulting. One listen to opener ‘Pandora’s Box’, and you’ll find all the From Mars to Sirius-isms packed into six minutes. While the first riff may sound a little adventurous, it quickly devolves into abuse of the chuggy-chuggy-dissonant chord pattern. While the chorus is explosive, there’s not a whole lot of heft beforehand to back it up. Kozoria’s issue throughout the entire album is each song meanders along until the epic sounding chorus, and while that should be enough to activate the cave-neurons within me, it leaves me feeling a bit deflated by the end.
It’s only when Kozoria decide to get out of their comfort zone a little bit that things get the least bit interesting. On ‘We’re Wolves’, they eschew their preestablished formula to delve into a thrash metal riff before the—you guessed it—super cinematic and epic chorus. However, with that being the seventh track on a nine-track album, there’s not enough adventure to make anything stick, despite multiple listens. ‘Demonize Them’ attempts to somehow outdo the theatrics of the opener, and while vocalist Julien Perdereau has the range to back up the constant barrage of ideas, the instrumentation doesn’t lend itself to much of anything interesting. There are arrays of Devin Townsend’s theatrics and metalcore, late Sylosis aggression, but none of it amounts to much of anything substantial.
Gojira understand the physical weight that comes from the combination of their crushing riffs and Joe Duplaintier’s monstrous vocals. Instead of taking that formula and modulating it through the lens of thrash—or any other subgenre for that matter—Kozoria seem to really be deadset on the Gojira comparisons. What makes me even more upset about their refusal to do anything remotely interesting is they’re all clearly talented musicians. The Source is a well recorded and great sounding album, and the ideas are on the verge of sticking, but need a little more adhesive to make them set.
I was dreading the nearly nine-minute closer title track, but it actually turned out to be my favorite upon multiple listens. Here, Kozoria let things bubble and simmer a little, and let Perdereau’s voice carry the beginning section, the eventual dramatics working because Kozoria set the foundation during the first two minutes. If a deeper understanding of how to pace songs like this was all over the record, I could see this being a point higher. While the chuggy-chuggys are still overly prevalent, the softer sections help The Source end on a relatively high note.
Kozoria seem to have taken their sweet time making this, and it’s honestly disappointing that this is all they have to show for it. A band who are all clearly talented should be trying to spread their wings and finding their own sound, not shoehorn inspiration from more popular ones. I really hope that Kozoria find it in them to continue in finding their signature sound. They’ve got all the right ingredients, but need to deviate a bit farther from their fellow Frenchman to really stand above.
Recommended tracks: The Source, We’re Wolves
You may also like: Omnerod
Final verdict: 5/10
Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Facebook | Instagram | Metal-Archives page
Label: Black Lion Records – Bandcamp | Facebook
Kozoria is:
– Pierre Gelinotte (drums)
– Kevin Delcourt (guitars)
– Julian Perdereau (vocals, guitars)
– Bertrand Janicot (bass)
