Week 1: Kryszt vs. Hyperion Blast

BOOM!	Week 1: Kryszt vs. Hyperion Blast

Welcome back to the second installment of our online Battle Of Original Music, or BOOM for short. (Get it?) For those of you who are unfamiliar with our battle of the bands for the information age, here’s how it works: Local original music acts visit Artvoice.com and submit a photo, an mp3, and fill out a brief questionnaire. (Bands, you still have time to enter, but there is nothing to be gained by procrastinating. Click here to register!) From those submissions, we pick two bands each week to go head to head in an online struggle for the hearts and minds of music fans across Western New York. How can I, as a music fan, participate, you ask? Simple. Start with our selections below for week one - visit and bookmark boom.artvoice.com to keep track as the contest progresses. Each week, simply place your vote for your favorite. The power, as we just learned on November 4, is in the hands of the people. Bands are encouraged to get out the vote any way they can short of stuffing the ballot box. Our IT guy is very savvy, and he’ll be monitoring the votes more closely than an election lawyer in Ohio. If you’re caught cheating, you can be disqualified. And there’s nowhere to appeal our decision.

The rewards for the winners are great. By next week, one of the two bands below will have collected enough votes to proceed to our first live quarterfinal—scheduled for December 26 at Nietzsche’s. There, each audience member will be issued one ballot, which they can use to vote for their favorite band. At the end of the night, one band will emerge victorious. They will receive a recording package from Audio Magic, and 100 CDs of that recording from ESP CD & DVD Manufacturing. In addition, they will be profiled on WBFO as part of their “Buffalo Avenues” program. We’ll do this four times.

The four winners of our live quarterfinals will face off in our Grand Finale in May. The winner that night will win a slot on WBFO’s Wednesday night concerts live from Allen Hall, a video produced by Artvoice, and a nice cash prize as well.

We’re happy to present this contest with the help of our great sponsors: Audio Magic, ESP, WBFO and Neitzsche's. They all play a vital role in making our town a hotspot of original music.

But we can’t make msic without u. May the best band win.

Voting is CLOSED

Results will be available in next week's Artvoice (v7n47, the Artvoice Gift Guide, week of November 19th). Results will also be available on the BOOM web page at http://boom.artvoice.com. Thanks to all who have participated this week, see you next week!

Kryszt

You need to have the Adobe Flash Player installed to listen. Download it for free here.

Listen to Summer of the Firefly by Kryszt

When did the band form? 2007

You might like us if you like: Nine Inch Nails, Tool, A Perfect Circle, Muse, Pink Floyd

List of recorded releases: A 3-song demo cd in 2008, working on a full length cd for a 2009 release.

Worst show ever played: We played at Rhinos once. The sound guy was very unprofessional and rubbed us all the wrong way. We didn’t play a solid set—as the sound on stage was mixed pretty bad—but everyone there seemed to enjoy it regardless.

Best show ever played: Any of the shows we play at Diablo. We play there the most and have a great connection with the employees and the patrons there.

Why you should win the Artvoice.com Online Battle of Original Music: I don’t know, maybe we do, maybe we don’t. We are still a pretty new band, but I believe that we have a whole lot of talent to show. I would rather play, see how it goes, and find out from you why we deserved to win.

Website: http://www.n3wt.net

Hyperion Blast

You need to have the Adobe Flash Player installed to listen. Download it for free here.

Listen to Tightrope by Hyperion Blast

When did the band form? Formed: 2007 in Lockport. Most of the band lives in the West Seneca area but practice in Lockport.

You might like us if you like: Eyehategod, Weedeater, Black Cobra

List of recorded releases: Forecasters of the Armageddon EP (Poison Tree Records-2008).

Worst show ever played: We played a metal fest in Buffalo at the Sikora Post and everything just went bad. Sound was bad, guitars and vocals cutting in and out, broken strings. An overall mess.

Best show ever played: One of our best shows was at the Red Eye Saloon in Lackawanna with Down the Drain. There was a great size crowd and we played a very tight and energetic set. We’ve had a bunch of shows we were very happy with but this one stuck out as one of our favorites.

Why you should win the Artvoice.com Online Battle of Original Music: We work hard to represent Buffalo and Doom Metal in general. we play from the heart the music we love to play with no compromise.

Contact information: http://www.myspace.com/endtimeblasts

Reader Comments

James Kingston
14 Nov 2008, 02:11

Is this even a fair comparison? Kryszt in one song displays more skills as musicians, as well as their genius in meshing poetic philosophies with innovating music structure. The reason why this band would be hard to place is due to their complexity, but in this era of music we need that. I am not going to mention the other band just solely on the fact that they pay no tribute to progression of philosophy and music.

Phil
14 Nov 2008, 12:59

what the hell is up with hyperion biast?...who the hell is grunnting, that's singing?...sounds like crap to me....Kryszt all the way...definately some talent there!

some kid
14 Nov 2008, 13:36

well there we go. keeping an open mind to new styles of music is always a great thing.

Skullz6
14 Nov 2008, 16:16

Hyperion Blast is one of the best bands I have heard in a long time. The talent and sound this band has is way above Kryszt. Blast has my vote!

hef
14 Nov 2008, 16:46

The singer of Kryszt sounds like a constipated Chester Bennington (Linkin park)

Lance Bas.
14 Nov 2008, 17:19

Well with listening to both bands im cleary thinking Hyperion has it hands down. Krystz is too christian rock for me. Sorry but stay away from the religious subjects.. Just rock..

artimus pyle
14 Nov 2008, 17:49

oh golly. i don't think this is supposed to be a fight between the bands. just exposing new people to new things. both bands are great at what they are doing. if ya dig it thats cool. if ya don't hey yer call. these are all local bands just doing shit they dig and are into. do we really need scene rift?

Brian Rose
14 Nov 2008, 21:02

Pairing of these two bands for a battle is kind of hard to judge so I will do my best. Kryszt basically sounds like nine inch nails on depleted double A batteries. Completley subpar for the style and to call them average would be a compliment.

Hyperion blast is more along the line of stoner rock. Extremely heavy catchy riffs, well written songs and yes the vocals are exactly right for the style of music and fit the music and are delivered well.

Hyperion Blast without a doubt, Kryszt need to go back to there practice space and find something a bit more Original and Inspired

Plex
14 Nov 2008, 22:25

Well to put it as blunt as possible (can I say "blunt"??) Kryszt has it hands down... to watch them play is an experience anyone who appreciates both music and art can appreciate.

They're clearly not a Christian band. If u take the time to actually listen to the lyrics you would realize that and it's not about who's catchier sounding, or who's been in the game longer, it's about who's got the meatballs to try something different and run with it.

I think I'd much rather smoke some weed, kick my feet back, and get lost in creative thought listening to Kryszt hands down!!!!!!!!!! HUR HUR!!!

truth
15 Nov 2008, 00:19

James Kingston... "pay no tribute to progression of philosophy and music"?!?! Seriously, what does that even mean?! Put the pipe down for a while.

Hyper Blast is just great angry music for those days you could careless about the progression of philosophy and it's tribute to music!

Joe
15 Nov 2008, 00:40

I like both bands. Bet the trash talkers above never picked up an instrument in their life.

That said I think Kryszt is a little commercial-y. That's not a compliment...but its certainly not an insult either. I know from experience behind a mixing console it's not easy to pull off such a professional sound. So props with regards to that. That's the kind of sound that goes places. It's also the same kind of sound you hear out of dozens of "modern rock" bands... sooo...

But... my vote goes to Hyperion Blast. More a matter of taste, but I like the heavy stuff.

Either way, way to go Artvoice. It's about time you acknowledge something besides the artsy fartsy and wierdo "wowee look at us our taste is so eccentric you can't even buy this cd" and all the classical music and whatnot. Not that there's anything wrong with that stuff, a lot of it is good. But we're Buffalo. These bands and others like 'em are Buffalo. Buffalo has so much more to offer that you guys never mention!! There's a metal scene that's never talked about. There's also some great hip hop that's never talked about (and my tastes vary - i hope there's some hip-hop entries in the coming weeks!) There's probably other things too, but I'm not in those loops... Artvoice is a great source of info - and Artvoice is so totally out of touch at the same time. If I had to guess I get the feeling you guys are suffering from having too many middle aged white guys running the show! Maybe the results of this contest will show you what us "kids" are into...

Kudos to a cool contest, though. Looking forward to next week.

Dat Dude 22
17 Nov 2008, 01:15

I have never heard of either of these bands, and after giving them both a listen Kryszt has my vote by a long shot. Unlike hyperblast, Kryszt seems like they are pushing the limits of modern day music. They sound like they are straying away from the norm to create musical bliss. Hyperblast sounds like every other hardcore band in Buffalo to me. Kryszt's music intrigues me and I will certainly check them out at their next show.

Dat Dude's Dumb
17 Nov 2008, 09:14

I bet you a hundred dollars I could go through these comments and tell you which ones are posted by members of Kryszt. Hyperion Blast what key are you dudes tuned to? Tough as nails!!!

JJ Elloitt
17 Nov 2008, 10:47

HyperBlast has my vote. I bet they eat Krysztie Krunch cereal for breakfast. Kryszt is just too poppy for me.

Ryan (BH)
17 Nov 2008, 10:50

Thanks all for the nice comments (those who made em and voted for us). We are tuned to A. yeehaa. For those who wanna bash and so on, we never set out to do something that nobody in the world has ever heard but i bet if you actually stopped by and checked out the other tunes and maybe saw a bit what we are all about then you might think otherwise on your thoughts. We do a style of music we love doing and that's the important thing i think. It's not for everyone and if yer not into oh well that's life. I actually personally know newt a bit from Kryszt and he's a good dude. I don't think either of the two bands on here are to concerned with shit talk from others. We both do what we enjoy doing and that's good enough for us. If ya dig us, kryszt or god forbid you may like both and realize the different qualities of the bands that set them apart from each other and others in buffalo. Either way ya look at this a good band will move on which is good for buffalo.So maybe we can finally all stop being assholes and accept that there are lots of different styles of music that make buffalo an awesome place for music. stop by both bands myspace pages and check them out. go out and support real underground music and make a difference rather than sitting behind a keyboard and using an opinion that you have as law. there is a dam good reason why buffalo gets shit on all the time for being so musically and artistically divided. a few good examples are above.
sorry for the rant. thanks much and best of luck to both bands in this "contest" and out there in the real world.

josh
17 Nov 2008, 14:03

i don't think you can compare the bands. enough trash talking, its dumb. both two different styles of music two different types of performance

most of the comments are here show the lack of understanding of music and people on here. so what if kryszt tries to experiment who cares if hyperion like to carry on the metal tradition.
kryszt isn't commercial you moron. try listening to other forms of music. that why i hate most metal people bc most of you are very narrow minded.

kryszt has shown their ability to experiment with odd time signatures and advanced key changes and polyrhythms. do you even know what any of these terms mean? my guess is no.
stop with the band bashing. at least these bands have the balls to create and perform

josh
17 Nov 2008, 14:21

i wonder why they chose summer of the firefly to put up

listen to the full disillusioned
that is my favorite to play. shit is epic

mary
17 Nov 2008, 14:34

hyperion blast has good song writing skills? please this song is the worst song i've heard.it doesn't take talent to scream and make terrible riffs on your guitar and be able to do double bass.

at least kryszt provides something different even if the song on here doesn't do their talent justice. i saw them play once and was blown away

hyperion blast is more of a john mccain, and old boring and traditional
kryszt is more obama, new refreshing, and different

and guess what? hyperion blast is typical metal lyric about death and stupid bullshit.
try using your head to write something real

whoa
17 Nov 2008, 14:51

hey mary did you read the lyrics??? i'm game for ignorant nothings to shit talk and so on but come on. in case you have the iq of dirt the lyrics in all hb songs are life issues. i know cuz i write them. they aint about death and blah blah on such a small sense of the word. read deeper into things and dont be such an ass about things. every word in every song is directly taken from a life experience that i had. something that happened to me. if my life is typical of the millions of other out there then hey the world must suck more than i thought. so talk your shit and feel all cool and hip about yourself for it. just dont be an ignorant fuck. and don't ever judge something you have no clue about til you walked the path in those shoes. i can take shit talking like i said but i get heated when little miss no nothings chime in with their two cents like they know anything. you dont know shit.

Keep N it Real
18 Nov 2008, 12:07

Quite honestly I think it comes down to looks. Hyperion has it in this department. Hands down.

bobby b stoned
18 Nov 2008, 13:44

EPIC music always gets my vote

C-man
19 Nov 2008, 21:05

Well, I think, there for I am the man. So Blah blah bliddy blah barf shit shit, me me me, no one understands me, my life is so deep i am in a world of my own, dumb diddy dumb dumb doodooh, diaper blasting kryszt bashing, fuckers don't know how to speak, we's all freaks ignoring geeks, slizurping on the soda pops and dingbats, jimmy parking buck tooth corn hole plunger, you guys ready for the chorus its the best part, silence.... oooo so define, phat line, pencil dong, pull my finger i have to fecalate, I am very lonely, i am a loser, who am i kidding. parked car in the garage with the keys in the ignition

BOOM!