SYPSIS–Playground of the Dead

Genre: Technical Thrash Metal/Death
Country: Greece
Label: –
Year: 2015

Sypsis is a systemic response typically to a serious usually localized infection especially of bacterial origin that is usually marked by abnormal body temperature and white blood cell count, tachycardia, and tachypnea….exactly what the band had in mind when writing Playground of the Dead. We are talking about a bass oriented mid-tempo technical thrash metal album with death metal vocal lines, and influences varying from Death, Atheist, Sadus, Kreator and Megadeth, to Queensryche. It is crystal clear that the band has it’s own personality that is struggling to become dominant and be heard out loud, but as this is their debut album it is still very ok to see who their heroes are. The whole album fluctuates from bitterness and pain to acrimony, having only a few interludes of lyricism and melancholy back and forth at Irony of Life, the ending part of Sypsis, the intro of Dark Illusion and the ending track Stillborn. The lyrics deal with social justice (or injustice) mainly, despair, and survival, and I would expect nothing less from a band hailing from Greece that has chosen to self-release its debut album in the darkest time of the recent history of this country.

4/6