Mystica – Oratorio

Bulgaria holds great memories for me. I go there most years to Sunny Beach for my holiday, and I know that there is some great talent over there. So when a review request came through for Mystica, I jumped at the chance.

Amazingly, Mystica have been around for some twenty seven years having originally formed in 1992. But even more surprisingly, they didn’t release their first album ‘Dreams In Real Forms’  until 2008, and this remains their only full length release to this day. Their brand of progressive metal is quite unique and this is evident is EP opener ‘I.M’.  Progressive bass runs are key here with the guitars soon joining in. When the dual vocals of Shultsi and Dalia kicked in my heart sank as this didn’t work at all. But the band pull this back almost instantly with a beautiful arrangement of vocals and harmonising guitars. This is actually a very clever song through it’s technique, and the darkness and harmonising knit it together just nicely.

‘Reborn’  is next up and the EP turns nice and heavy just as I like it. The track’s opening riff is a creeper. Slower than the opener, but far more crunchier. The dual harmonies work better in this track, as they do in title track ‘Oratorio ‘.  This is a stomper of a track pulling in at just over eight minutes. It’s extremely technical, demonstrating that these Bulgarian jewels can seriously play. It’s built around lots of different sections in the same sort of way as ‘Halloween‘  by Helloween.  There’s a very different mid section which boasts a nice piano piece. Very different and very listenable with it’s jazz section. Lovely.

‘Memories‘  displays some great bass work underneath haunting harmonies, and a crunching Egyptian style guitar riff. Mystica’s composing is actually very clever, if not to everyone’s taste. The EP closes with ‘Missing Way’  and it’s peaceful piano intro. There’s oundles of soul and depth in this song with the dual harmonising vocals again playing a major part. Overall a good album. These guys can compose and play and are definitely worth checking out.

Track Listing:

1 – I.M   /   2 – Reborn   /   3 – Oratorio   /   4 – Memories   /   5 – Missing Way

Line-up:

Rosen Kolev – Guitar   /   Sonya Spasova – Keyboard   /   Stanislav Chokarski – Bass   /   Shultsi – Vocals

Dalia Chorbadjiiska – Vocals   /   Hristomir Sabchev – Drums