XYSTUS BAND PAGE
 XYSTUS
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CURRENT NAME
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Xystus |
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FORMER NAMES
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- |
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ORIGIN
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Netherlands, the |
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STATUS
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Active |
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FORMED IN
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- |
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LABEL
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The Electric Co. |
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GENRE
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Power metal |
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STYLE
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- |
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LYRICAL THEME
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- |
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BAND ADDED
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2005-01-26, 00:00 |
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LAST UPDATE
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2005-01-26, 00:00 |
In 1998, 16-year-old Ivo van Dijk buys his first guitar and
starts playing music on the weekends, together with his schoolmate Bas
and another friend on drums. After a while, Ivo takes the seat behind
the drum kit and Bas switches to guitar. Ivo manages to persuade his
younger brother Tim to take up the bass and the band’s first line-up is
completed when Pim van Drunen joins them on keyboards: Xystus is born.
The four of them, never having played an instrument before, start
rehearsing relentlessly by playing Metallica covers. “It sounded awful! We
still have the tapes to prove it,” says the now 22-year-old Ivo. “But
nothing ventured, nothing gained. In the end I think the more determined
you are, the more you grow musically.” Receiving Tomorrow, the remarkable
debut album of Xystus, is proof of this. By now, guitarist Bob Wijtsma
has completed the line-up and the band is currently looking for a new
keyboard player to join the band during live shows.
Xystus is mainly influenced by symphonic bands, but movie soundtracks
are an important source of inspiration as well. Ivo, the band’s main
songwriter, is particularly inspired by composers like Hans Zimmer
(Mission Impossible, Pearl Harbor) and John Williams (Minority Report): “I
love the way in which that kind of music is composed so well and is so
emotionally expressive and eloquent.” This influence can be heard in the
intro of the extraordinary ‘Elements of The Truth’, one of the band’s
own favourites and a song that has grown enormously since its demo phase.
It is quite bombastic with beautiful orchestral parts and strong
lyrics. Opening track ‘Journey: Shadow of Today’ is also one of the album’s
highlights when it comes to epic, structure and lyrics. ‘Forgotten
Years’ stands out from the rest of the songs because of its more electronic,
almost trance-like and hypnotic sound. Lyrically, the album has no
particular concept: the little stories, written by singer Bas, are b!
oth autobiographical and fictional, characterized by catchy metaphors
and an intense emotional expression. Particularly striking are the
lyrics of the lengthy, three-part ‘Lost In Misery’, which deals with loss.
Although Xystus is often labelled ‘progressive rock’, Ivo is eager to
differentiate: “Endless guitar solo’s and changes of pace have always
been less appealing to us than a catchy chorus and a great composition. I
tend to think of Xystus as more of a symphonic power metal band. The
strength of bands we like to listen to ourselves, such as Blind Guardian
and Kamelot, is that those bands are really song-orientated instead of
focussed on the more technical aspects of music.” Basically, Xystus is
the best of both worlds: all the tracks on the album are compact and
well-composed with catchy choruses, while containing well-balanced
changes of pace and solo’s as well.
Receiving Tomorrow was recorded at the New Road Studios with producer
Rob van Boeckel, who has no relation to metal at all. This made him the
perfect candidate to produce the album because of his fresh outlook on
things. Ivo: “Rob has had a major impact, especially on the more
experimental elements on the album. He is a very funky guitar player and he
came up with rhythms and guitar parts we could never have come up with
ourselves, because we come from the more straightforward metal scene.”
Up to now, the band has had to adjust their ambition constantly. Ivo:
“At each phase in your musical career your ambition changes. A few years
ago, I could not have imagined I would play at the Metal Bash on the
same line-up as Machine Head.” He adds that Xystus would like to belong
to the new category of Dutch bands that has come forward in the last few
years: “A lot of new acts have come up lately who, in my opinion, are
very revolutionary. I think there will be more room for symphonic bands
in the future as a result of that.” With such a remarkable debut, there
will be plenty of room for Xystus within the Dutch rock scene and
beyond
