YYRKOON:

• Occult Medicine (2004) Well, this band has the Carcass "Heartwork" sound down pretty well, with 3 notable differences. First, almost no high pitched singing, mostly the lower stuff. Second, this album has way more superfast doublekicks in it (drumming provided by Dirk of Scarve and Soilwork fame). And last the production is bigger. That puts the band a little closer to Aborted's "Goremageddon" or Exhumed I suppose, maybe even a little of Grimfist's first album. But despite the lack of originality, this album has good riffs and a nice big army-of-guitars sound going on, super thick with some well done reverb. If I had to pick a single word, that word may have to be "Enjoyable", the band references enough old standards and performs them so well you can't help but enjoy the album because it reminds you of so many good things in metal. Recommended.
• Unhealthy Opera (2006) Similar to their last cd, so the usual influences of Carcass and Aborted are still there (in fact, this album sounds very much like Aborted). But "similar to their last cd" also means this is a super solid album with some great songs and catchy riffs, not to mention "punch you in the nuts" viciousness. Productionwise, it has a slightly more in your face guitar sound, a few less overdubs and a little less reverb, but still big sounding. The rest is exactly what you'd expect. Some bands innovate, some just play the old standards so well you don't care, and Yyrkoon delivers another fantastic cd well worth adding to your collection.