Hyban Draco - Frozen Whispers (2010)

   Hyban Draco debuted with an album that was officially marked as black metal, but it was much more than that. Their music provided an interesting perspective, that despite sounded very familiar and came from the very basic core of extreme metal, seemingly cannot be related directly with any big names of the genre. 
   The band operated with pretty simple themes and relied on catchy melodic leads that are usually reminding to black and thrash metal. However, the intensity of their music didn't reach ordinary black or thrash metal. Similar themes could have been heard on the debut of Witchburner and in Desaster's music in general, but Hyban Draco preferred a more epic, classic heavy metal based and melodic approach. Their short and occasional speedups aren't sufficient for calling it as thrashing, but in melodic death metal similar song compositions could work just fine. Soft melodies and strong atmosphere showed up as completing factors, and that suggested the influence of the mainstream bands of black metal, such as Cradle of Filth or Dimmu Borgir. But at one hand there's a constantly returning melancholic touch that became more dominant, not to mention the old school tendencies to sense on "Frozen Whispers", that are keep cancelling any theatrical possibilities. The band definitely had mixed influences, but they've been put well together. Even though their solutions didn't count as usual, their music was compatible with both mainstream and underground audiences. 
  "Frozen Whispers" was still in some sort of experimenting state, but still it counts as a very stunning debut, could be potential favorite for the fans of black metal, black/thrash and melodic death.