Diabulus in Musica - Euphonic Entrophy

Updated: Apr 30, 2020

Label: Napalm Records

Release date: 14th February 2020

Genre: Symphonic metal

The Spanish symphonic metal quartet Diabulus in Musica is back with a new album, "Euphonic Entropy". Three intense years after the release of "Dirge for the Archons", Aznárez and her husband, keyboardist Gorka Elso, decided to inspire their new album with all the wonderful, yet chaotic emotions a new life brings as the self-produced album mirrors the changes and blossoming beauty in the lives of the two bandleaders after the birth of their second child and melts everything into thunderous and highly passionate symphonic metal. The album is bursting with power ballads, beautiful melodies, and emotions.

The band came to be in 2006 when singer Zuberoa Anzárez had an interest of merging the elegance and passion of classical music with the aggressiveness and strength of metal, but it wasn't until 2010 when they released their first album “Secrets”, which was being published internationally by the American label Metal Blade that led them to the success of opening the doors to international concerts and festivals that leads them to tour Europe and Mexico.

Tracklist

A Lucid Chaos

Race to Equilibrium

Nuevo Rumbo

The Misfit's Swing

In Quest of Sense

Otoi

Blurred Dreams

On the Edge

Our Last Gloomy Dance

One Step Higher

Blind Muse

Into the Vortex

The prelude “A Lucid Chaos” begins the album with a marching cinematic symphonic orchestration with a sweeping choral that is preparing you for an intense and yet emotional ride through genres, until wasting no time getting into the metal aspects in “Race to Equilibrium” that blasts your ears with some thunderous riffs and smashing drums going at a fast (literal) racing pace, along with the symphonic orchestra creates such a grand build-up as if making the finish line. The choir really adds that dramatic divinity in the song that can really be on par with the Dutch symphonic titans Epica. The album continues charging at you in the following “Nuevo Rumbo” with crunchy progressive metal passages at the start, while they're expressing their Spanish identity in their lyrics of a new life in a “beauty and the beast” formula of Anzárez's lush operatic vocals and Elso's diabolical grunts. Something a little different in this next track “The Misfit’s Swing” which is the band’s first single to the album, taking inspiration from Big Band music, creating a catchy and bouncy track about individuality in a heavy swing. It’s great to hear more of this swing metal combination being executed outside of the Swedish octet Diablo Swing Orchestra.

“In Quest of Sense” kicks off in a fast rhythmic paced, but the vocals as we get to the midpoint of the song I would say is very “different”, the direction goes more like a hip-hop style. In a case like this, it’s not too bad! Keeping up with the pace, it connects really well. The album’s second single “Otoi”, implements the sounds of folk music with tribal percussion and from Anzárez's talent of the flute, the beautiful smoothing blend between the folk and metal in the song sends a delicate sensation of floating. The lyrics are sung in the Basque language, an old language from the indigenous Basques that soon became neglected and isolated, almost forgotten in which this song expresses actually. “Blurred Dreams” a ballad that begins with a dreamy piano that gives you that hazy aesthetic from the title. The lulling Anzárez is something you can’t resist in this song, especially her operatic dynamic along the string sections as the metal instrumentation doesn’t try to become an overwhelming factor making it easy listening. Electronic elements start “On the Edge” after that ballad, the formula creates such a tension between the guitars and drums as if something was about to burst.

“Our Last Gloomy Dance” comes in royalty style with marching percussion as entering the grand ballroom, the beginning of a heavy metal waltz. Operatic vocals finesse their way in this a ¾ rhythm in smooth flow as Carricia's drumming never misses a beat. “One Step Higher” comes in like a whirlwind of symphonic metal sounds that would have fit as the second track after the intro. “Blind Muse” starts with powerful dynamics as the beginning, boon soon tones down to a moody setting of being fearful about your end. The finale to the album titled “Into the Vortex” is an original classical operatic piece by the band with Zuberoa displaying her powerful belts of overcoming the dark and evil, restoring the peace and order the world has lost, as we prepare the days to come.

After hearing the latest works from the symphonic quartet, I'm left impressed, though are some moments that became muddled, but overall, the album has some great dynamic to it that definitely categorized them to the heights such as Nightwish, Epica, and also even their label mates Xandria. “Euphonic Entropy” is a great album of experimentation into other genres like electronics and swing and I hope to see them continue this momentum to get more listeners they deserve into this new decade of the band’s career.

Final rating: 8