After a long back and forth, the third album “Metamorph” by the Danish-Norwegian quintet Euzen has finally found its way into my system. And how happy I am about that, because “Metamorph” turned out to be a really nice thing. First of all, something about nomenclature: According to the booklet, the album title does not refer to the epic of the same name by the Roman poet Ovid, but rather to the band's music. The band wants to express that they want to lose themselves between creative and actual realities. Modern possibilities make it possible to capture the moment and create a bridge between the band's intentions and the listener's interpretation. The band name Euzen probably comes from an ancient Greek philosophical concept that deals with a happy life. It also fits that the band's debut is called "Eudaimonia", which means bliss. Someone should say again that you don't learn anything with us anymore! But now to the music. The foundation of this is electronic sounds and synthesizers, which are complemented by organic instrumentation, with the latter always operating in the background. In addition to the drums, you can also hear guitar and bass. Maria Franz sings with a lovely voice and a folky touch. Well, does that sound familiar? Right, that screams – at least on paper – for a comparison with the avant-garde icon Bjork. However, this turns out to be difficult because Euzen play less introverted and reserved, instead the music is more “In Your Face”. This also applies to the lyrics, which are written much more directly and less personally than you would expect from the Icelandic art pop elf. But singer Maria Franz sounds a lot like BJÖRK, so at least in this respect there is a certain comparability. And the Norwegian can withstand that, even if Franz sings much more open-heartedly. The metamorphosis takes place on a musical level when the powerful synthesizers come together with fragile piano and an idiosyncratic rhythm like in “The Order”. Maria Franz sings with her fascinating and hypnotic voice and immediately captivates the listener. You could almost say that “Metamorph” sounds like the love child of Trent Reznor and Bjork. This creates a uniform interplay between nature and technology, folk and electro. Maria Franz effortlessly switches between moods, be it powerful hymns like “Mind” or sensitive passages like “Words”. The music ranges from dreamy ballads like “Me And My” to danceable numbers like “Wasted”. Despite all this, the music of the Scandinavians is surprisingly minimalistic, which gives the individual pieces an original touch and contributes to their independence. Actually, the only thing missing from the songs is the overall contextual framework. Overall, Euzen develop a wide spectrum of different influences that you have to discover for yourself little by little. These individual parts transform into a larger whole that has enormous recognition value. In addition, the production is rich and the music is very audible without appearing flat. Anyone who enjoys experimental music with female folk singing simply cannot ignore “Metamorph”. Not fans of Bjork at all. Translated from: https://www.metal.de/reviews/euzen-metamorph-60504/
