Let me come clean and state up front that there is no music currently out there that I like more than this short EP. Daughter of the Night is not even a full production effort and it is still number one on my I-Pod, all three I-Pods, for that matter. In fact, since September of 05, when Tarja left Nightwish, I can’t think of anything that has caught my attention like this band, and they haven’t even released a full-length production CD yet. The review here is of a 4 set collection being released as an EP.
There’s not a lot of history to Whyzdom, I can’t even find a listing of the lyrics. . . .although I pretty much have them memorized at this point. You’ve got it all here folks, great bombastic orchestration, masterful choirs, a lovely female vox, some great male grunting in appropriate locations, outstanding musicians and absolutely first rate production. I can’t imagine how you top this one, although the band and label seem confident enough to have requested keeping The Train off the latest Sonic Cathedral production, A World of Sirens, until they can get it into a more complete production basis. Heck, it’s been my favorite song now for months, how do you make it better?

The band is a five member group, Telya Melane – Vocals, Vynce Leff - Guitar, Orchestration, Regis Morin – Guitar, Nico Chaumeaux – Drums and Tristan Demuiger – Bass. According to the label, the band is hard at work expanding this title to a full 11 set CD that should be available next year. It will be a long one, Whyzdom doesn’t do short, catchy pop songs, these titles are fully developed productions, often with multiple components.

In terms of history, Whyzdom seems to have evolved out of an effort by Vynce Leff, a well known European progressive musician, to move in some new directions in early 2007. His interest was in the direction of symphonic metal and he started by looking for a singer. After numerous tryouts, he went with Telya, a young actress/singer whose voice, look and presentation matched perfectly with Leff’s vision for the project. The remaining musicians were quickly inked and the group began penning material. That, of course, was an undertaking of some significance and time consumption. There’s a lot of music here with the orchestration and choirs, and that takes a lot of writing time. . . followed by a lot of production time. And that’s probably why we have a 4 set EP to begin with. Some reports state that the initial release was to include 7 songs. With a lesser number, the label, and the band, can provide an up front peek and do some evaluation of the sound. It’s what they call an "iterative" effort in the software business. That would make this Daughter 1.0.

It’s hard to actually choose a "best" from the 4 songs presented here. The Train gets the most airtime on the Sonic Cathedral radio station, and for good reason, it’s a monster. However, there are certainly those who would choose others. The first song, The Witness, begins with choirs and then moves to the vocals of singer Telya and the metal background. But, it doesn’t stay anywhere long, there are periods of orchestration, periods of choral work and lots of straight up metal with Telya’s soaring vocals. This girl can sing. The follow-up, Daughter of the Night carries on in the same vein, but with a stronger vocal component from Telya. And, just when you think it can’t get any better, you get the Train. You’ve probably heard that one, and I can’t hear it enough. That choir at the end is something you don’t forget too soon. The final cut, On the Wings of Time, is a slower composition, but equally strong. Heck, it even starts out with bagpipes, how cool is that. For those who favor the ballad, this is the one. Telya looses nothing in a song like this, some may find it even preferable to the harder stuff, although head bangers like me would beg to differ. Oh, by the way, it closes with bagpipes too. And I do love bagpipes.

The excellence doesn’t stop with the musical composition, strong as that is. Visuals are excellent, the website is as good as it gets. Someone is putting money into this project and using some serious talent. And it shows from top to bottom.

Get use to this name, Whyzdom will be around for a while, and, if they build on the promise from his EP, we have a lot to look forward to.

I score this EP off the charts, 11 out of 10? ...Yes it is rare but possible...