I found this at a record store in Florence, Italy, Wyxmer’s home town. Oddly enough the guy running the shop assured me they were not an Italian band solely based on the name and cover photo. However upon flipping it over and reading the back cover, much to his own surprise he realized that in fact they were not only Italian, but from Florence. It just goes to show, there’s always more to learn.
I couldn’t find much about Wyxmer online. The four-song The Syre Of was their only release, at least until a combination compilation / new instrumental material came out in 2005. Sources vary on the size of the pressing, which appears to have been self-released – I’ve seen claims of 300 copies as well as one of 1,000 copies but with only a few hundred actually circulated. I suspect we’ll never know for sure, at least not without tracking down one or more of the former members. Some reviews speak of this being fairly expensive, but currently Discogs has 20 copies listed most of which are in the $20-40 range, so not too bad.
I’ve been trying to think of how to best describe the sound of The Syre Of. There’s more than a hint of guitar-driven NWOBHM1, though the music itself is a bit flat in the mix. By contrast the vocals are clean and very up front – it sounds a bit like someone singing over a backing marginal quality track well after it had been originally recorded. Vocalist Astor Pride tries to capture the soaring nature of 80s metal vocals, though his range lacks the high end so prevalent during the era. The songs are good enough to make me curious if they were remixed for inclusion on 2005’s Feudal Throne, because the seeds of something excellent are here to be heard.
- New Wave Of British Heavy Metal ↩︎