TYRANT (the 259th) play Melodic Black Metal with a lot of keyboards, but not the usual Black, but a bit more influenced by traditional Heavy Metal, which does not have to be negative. The first track already shows that they do not do the standardised stuff, but try to differ.

The songs all are over-long, between six and more than 13 minutes, which is nice, because they can do many different things, but on the other hand creates quite some lengths, which dilute the dynamics of the songs. What also is a negative point is that the keyboards are (too) far in the foreground, taking all lead-roles, the guitar is only used as rhythm-instrument, which is a pity for the (unfortunately only in the background) quite interesting guitar-runs are drowned, what a waste.

What else is remarkable? That two ladies are part of the band, one on the keyboards and one on the drums, while I ask myself while listening to "Legend", if the Japanese build female drum-computers by now, but I could have misheard.

The (on my opinion relatively weak) voice of front-demon Keisuke in my ears is the decisive factor in the success of TYRANT, because for the blackhearts the keyboards will be too much and those, who could like those will most probably have their problems with the "vocals" and the partly pretty fast tempo.

Altogether a pretty split thing... (Online August 7, 2002)