Over the past few years, melodic death metal has seen a resurgence. While the veterans like Dark Tranquillity, In Flames, Insomnium, and Amon Amarth are still churning out new music and touring the globe, there seems to have been a resurgence, especially in North America, in the melodic death category. Bands like Upon Stone (who I featured in a review earlier this year), Majesties, and Darkness Everywhere are carrying the torch for the melodic death revival.
A few weeks ago, I received an email in my inbox about a new melodic death band out of Vancouver named Kayas. The email contained a link to their new music video for their single “Reflection in the Water”. Seeing that they were a melodic death metal band, I knew I had to give it a view. As soon as I saw vocalist/guitarist Devan standing on a rock in the middle of a stream, with a majestic skullet that even Devin Townsend would envy blowing in the wind, I knew I had to review their album.
By the Moon and Stars is Kayas’ debut full-length album. Their prior release was a three song EP back in 2019 and two of the songs from that EP are re-released on this album. Reading through their press releases, it highlighted that they were influenced by Kalmah and Insomnium and I heard those bands while watching the music video for Reflection.
The album gets started with the song “Tempest” and it is an absolute ripper from the get-go. Dueling guitars, galloping and thunderous double bass from the drums and some great growls from both JP (who also plays bass) and Devan. Near the end of the song, we get a guitar solo from Jessica, and it was a ripper!
“Span of Time” keeps the party going before getting to the two older songs from the EP. “The Winter Curse” starts off with a bit slower than the prior tracks but springs to life about a minute in. This track is full of dizzying melodic guitar sections and skull crushing double bass that keeps you coming back for more. This was probably the one track I kept coming back to the most while listening to this album for the past few weeks.
“For a Star” was another stand out track for me. Right out of the gate, Kayas encapsulates the listener with some very atmospheric melodic guitar work. It immediately had me think of Insomnium. The track goes from the soaring guitars to more of that chuggy, galloping style that we would hear in an Insomnium song such as “Lillian” from Anno 1696. My only critique of this track would be to move the solo that starts early in the track back to near the end. It just felt a tad out of place where they had placed it, but it is only a minor issue with me because the solo is great, just in the wrong spot of the song in my opinion.
We also must highlight the reason I am even writing this review and that is the majestic track “Reflection in the Water”. The track starts of with a single guitar until the rest of the band joins in a few seconds later. The track builds over the first minute and a half until the vocals kick in and the band kicks it up all the way to eleven. Attacking from all angles with the melodies, this song winds and turns around each bend of the forest stream from the music video they did for the track. This is for the sure the best song on the album. It would be the perfect song to close a set with.
Kayas puts on a great display of their brand of melodic death on this ten-song album that spans nearly 45 minutes in length. They have set a great foundation for themselves in the future to expand on their sound and hopefully become a force to be reckoned with in the melodic death scene. Let’s hope that they continue to bring some great melodic death to the masses!
- The Metal Architect
