KORYPHEUS is a metal band hailing Kyiv, Ukraine lead by its front man Andrey (Andy) Gushin. Recently, the band has signed to M-Theory Records, US and will release their third album "Gilgamesh" in September 2025. The album has ten songs, and the title track is first. The opening tones have a Middle Eastern flair to them, and the guitar work is aggressive. The harsh vocals echo the sentiment, although the song isn’t without melody. Overall, however, it seems to be about what unbridled power the band can muster, and it’s quite a bit. “Karma Free” is another heavily weighted song, and the band hits each accent hard and with authority. The lead breaks are sweet, and somewhat somber, and the song has a quickened, hasty feeling to it.

“Sleeper” is another aggressive offering tempered with just enough melody to lift it out from underneath all of the filth. The female guest gives an excellent clean vocal performance as well. “Holy War” is a punisher, and the harsh vocals combine with a powerful, contentious riff, and it breaks through every barrier in its path. There is also a breakdown of gutturals, and they are as nasty as anything I have heard this year. “Be My Ghost” features another combination of heavy, accented guitar work with vocals that are clean at times, and deadly at others. The band’s musicianship comes through strong also. “Odysseus” comes out of the gate with a brutal, punishing riff and harsh vocals that are so sharp, they draw blood. Again, there is some melody, but it is relatively short lived.

In keeping with the theme of Greek heroes, “Icarus” has a deep, heavy groove to it that takes no prisoners, and the rhythm guitar work and bass work are excellent. The vocals are clean and solemn at first, but turn angry later. “Avatar” has weeping clean guitar harmonies and solemn, yearning vocals. The harsh vocals that follow however are absolutely devastating in their stance. “Outro” is the final offering, and it’s a very short instrumental closer, with more of those Middle Eastern elements. Overall, this was a solid listen for me. The band has all of the elements you would want from the genre, and are quite talented as well. It’s just a matter of sharpening their efforts a bit for this to go from a good release to an excellent one.