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Eynomia: Break Free
Eynomia - Break Free CD Album Review

Eynomia: Break Free

Melodic/Heavy/Power Metal
3.5/5.0

Based in Minneapolis and lead by award-winning vocalist Phyllis Rutter, Eynomia is the product of the age of social media. The project came together with the band members communicating and collaborating via Facebook. With Ms Rutter the band includes guitarist Chris Bickley (Christine Ohlman Band, Thunderhead), ubiquitous bass player Mike LePond (Symphony X), Jimmy Pitts (Christian Muenzer Band, Fountainhead) on the keys and Gaetano Nicolosi (Ron Keel Band) on drums. Break Free is their debut album for Germany's Pure Legend Records.

Eynomia Band Photo

Eynomia

To explain Eynomia's sound we merely need to state the band's own description from their Facebook page: "Eymonia is a five-piece Symphonic Rock/Metal band that is strongly influenced by European female-fronted bands." They cite influences like Aramanthe, Nightwish, Epica, and Delain. Now if you're thinking, Eynomia and Break Free is more of the same, you're probably right.

But Eynomia could also go head to head with some of their peers as well, simply on the strength of their songwriting. Every song within the album has a good balance of musical parts. Bickley's riffs are both harmonic and sharp; his solo's abundant and fiery. Within Til We Meet Again, just after the midpoint he delivers some sweet classical guitar. The keyboard layer provides light symphonic atmosphere, but also has parts that both lead and accent as within Through Your Eyes. The rhythm section offer both groove (Take A Look, Cleansing) and power metal bluster ( When It's Over,Someday Maybe, I Can Tell). Rutter, for her part is a fine vocalist. Her voice turns more upon a classic rock and metal timbre, rather than a pitched operatic style like Tarja (which is actually a selling point in my case). All these things come together in an creative way for accessible and interesting melodic heavy metal tunes.

Sure, with the increasing abundance of female-fronted metal band, it's difficult to break through and, at the same time, not sound derivative. But with the strength of Break Free, I think Eynomia has a chance to capture the interest of fans of the genre.



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The Bottom Line

With the increasing abundance of female-fronted metal band, it's difficult to break through and, at the same time, not sound derivative. But with the strength of Break Free, I think Eynomia has a chance to capture the interest of fans of the genre.

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