Italian folk metal band Kypra are on a mission to bring the sound and stories of their Picenum folklore to the masses. The octet blend heavy metal with traditional folk instrumentals like violins, flutes and bagpipes and clean and heavy vocals in a sound they describe as “folklore, energy and fun.”
Kypra began at the end of 2018 when three school friends from Fermo, a small town in eastern Italy, near-ish to Pescara, reunited to play music together. Drummer Andrea Tofoni and pipers Alessio Bastarelli and Federico De Angelis began writing their own songs before completing the band with Roberto De Santis (guitar, Ilaria Iacopini (violin), Nicole Neroni (vocals) and Federico Latini (vocals and guitar).
On the sound they’ve crafted, the band told us: “We try to be a good expression of the genre we represent, but at the same time we don’t like to put too many limits on our creativity. For that reason, we think that our sound is a unique blend of heavy metal and acoustic instruments such as violin, flutes and bagpipes. However, we are working to create our own specific genre, which is why we use the ‘Picenum’ suffix when we describe it. Our folklore is another important factor for our sound.”
Our latest taste of this is Kypra’s first official single Coreomania, which is a superb introduction to the band. It starts out with light bagpipes that continue under heavy guitar chords and an alluring little flute tune, which drops into Nicole’s engaging vocals. The heavy chords jump back in and give way to Nicole’s light vocals again, before Federico’s more intense vocals take over with a meandering violin. Nicole joins in as it flows into a big atmospheric chorus with cries of “Coreomania,” ending with big screamed vocals over lively instrumentals.
That flows into delicious dual vocals, and the pace drops with drawn-out instrumentals. Nicole’s vocals bring a little calm to the proceedings, supported by flowing flute and violin. Chunky guitars join in and set up a delicious final chorus with Nicole delivering higher-pitched cries of “Coreomania” to bring the track to a lively conclusion. We absolutely love it!
On the track, they told us: “Before this single we made a demo EP to get our first listeners. But we believe that there is a big quality gap between the two releases and we think that it has been perceived by the fans as well. It also helped us to reach more audience, so we can say that we are very happy about the feedback we are receiving. For the ones that haven’t listened it yet, well, prepare yourselves to dance and join the Coreomania!” Check it out in the stream here:
As mentioned, Kypra previously released their EP I to give us a taster for what’s to come with their folk metal sound. We firmly recommend checking out, including the delicious Mare Alto and Insonne Poetica.
Given Kypra is formed of eight members, they draw influence from a wide range of styles and artists. A common shared influence is Nightwish, along with System Of A Down, prog bands like Ne Obliviscaris and Thy Catafalque, and folk metal bands like Skalmöld, Eluveitie and Folkstone.
And on what inspires them to write music, they explain: “Our goal is to bring our territory’s folklore to the public. We have a lot of beautiful legends and fairy tales linked to our mountains or the sea. We also like to share stories about the Piceni people, the ones who lived in our region before the Roman Empire. These are the two main topics of our songs. But sometimes we also talk about legends from other territories, like our new single Coreomania, which is about the dancing plague of 1518 in Strasbourg.”
We’ve not featured a great amount of folk metal in the past, but we definitely love the sound of fusing modern metal influences with traditional sounds and instruments. So Kypra very much tick that box and we’re excited to hear more from them.
There’s plenty more to come from Kypra, who’ll be releasing a video for Coreomania shortly before releasing two EPs ahead of their first album, which should be out next year. They’re also busy playing gigs with more in the pipeline.
You can follow Kypra on Facebook and Instagram, and check out their music on Spotify, Apple Music Deezer and YouTube.
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