Album Review: Cyhra - No Halos In Hell

When a band declines in the eyes of fans, they usually want someone to blame. It's easier to say that everything is the fault of one person who we can write off, and that our favorite member was always fighting against the backslide. We don't want to admit that an entire group simply decided they wanted to move in a different direction than we wanted from them, because if we do that, it severs the connection we had with those people in the first place. So it's funny that for a decade now people have blamed the collapse of In Flames in everyone but Jesper Stromblad, who was saved from that band's most embarrassing moments by leaving before them. He is still well regarded, which is hard to come to terms with when you hear Cyhra, which does all the same things bad In Flames did. Sure, they do it better, but it's the same approach everyone claims to hate.

Featuring Jesper alongside former Amaranthe singer Jake E, Cyhra is yet another band taking on the task of making thoroughly modern pop-metal. And since I have yet to hear an album that does it better than the latest from Jake's former band, my use of that as a measuring stick is a coincidence, not a conscious choice.

Making pop-metal can lead to accusations that the music is bland. That can be true, but usually what is meant is that the music is standard, that there aren't any risks being taken. That is also true of Cyhra. This album doesn't do anything that would be surprising, and there aren't any musical elements that stand out from the myriad other bands that do this sort of style. In fact, if we're going to use Amaranthe as our comparison, Cyhra is even more sanded down and polished. There aren't any occasional growls, the riffing is more melodic and less aggressive, and the choruses lack the punch the triple-vocal attack can provide.

But following the playbook doesn't mean you're any lesser, and disregard anyone who tries to tell you different. Have you ever stopped and wondered why certain conventions become standards? It's because they work, and so too does Cyhra's approach. These guys have been around long enough to know how to put together a song, and that's exactly what they do here. It's smooth, and it's polished, but it's also lovely melodic metal that has a lot of charm. It would be hard to play this album and not at least nod your head along. You may not headbang, but you'll enjoy yourself.

Being conventional does leave me with less to say, however. If you already know this style, you know what you're going to be getting from Cyhra. There aren't that many ways for me to say that they make melodic metal with solid hooks and enough crunch. This is a consistent album that doesn't really have any standout songs, so running through the track listing isn't necessary either. Basically, we can just say that Cyhra is good at what they do, and leave it at that. But to go slightly further, I would say that Cyhra slots in somewhere in the upper-middle class of pop-metal. They aren't the best, but they outclass a whole host of others. I think they could use a little more bite to the songs, but I don't have any complaints. I don't have any rapturous praise either, so there's your picture of what Cyhra is.