Liverpool Sound and Vision Rating 9/10
In a world that seems to become more corrupt, more fraudulent in the way in the way that as people, as citizens of a global community, we are treated, spied upon, taken to task for having the temerity in poking our heads above the ramparts and questioning the right to anybody knowing everything about lives, it seems the more somebody dares pose their doubt, the more tighter the grip becomes. Told who we must hate, despise, loathe, keep an eye on for, be like the two worst and vile extremes of human surveillance that the 20th century forced upon a Europe that slept walked almost into death, too few people speak up to point out what is wrong with the world.
Perhaps the Dutch band MaYan and their album Antagonise can reverse the trend, for they certainly have proved on this terrific album, a treat of Symphonic Metal which just astonishingly sublime, that the questions have to be asked and that we should not be treated as children who have no idea what we keep allowing done in our name.
Antagonise is perhaps arguably one of the finest examples of Symphonic Metal to have been ever recorded. Full of pace and vigour, an attitude that does the Dutch band great service and most of all a subject matter that deserves to be brought up, to be discussed without any fear of recriminations or the thought of a size 10 boot kicking at your door in the middle of the night. The album also showcases the superbly the female/male back and forth nature that Symphonic Metal is completely at home with, perhaps only Folk music is as well as versed in the creative patterning that this allows.
With tracks from their second studio album as rich and musically superb as Bloodline Forfeit, Burn Your Witches, the outrageously good Devil In Disguise and the ultimate track on the album Faceless Spies all being performed by band members Mark Jansen, Henning Basse, the exceptional Laura Macri, Jack Driessen, Frank Schiphorst, Rob van der Loo and Ariën van Weesenbeek, Dutch Symphonic Metal has come of age. Stirring, beautifully performed and most of all unwavering in their ability to raise issues that matter, long live the MaYan dynasty.
Ian D. Hall