Review Summary: A very solid Journey and a great debut from a very promising up-and-comer.
There are a lot of up-and-coming or flat out unknown electronic producers in the world with quite a lot of talent and/or potential, overshadowed by much of the generic mainstream EDM such as Martin Garrix and Marshmello. Blyzo is one of those producers, and with "Journey", he's upped the ante from "The Void" EP and showcased just how much talent/potential he truly has, especially considering he's only been in the business for about a year as of this review.
The biggest pro there is here is the production is VERY polished and clean, which makes sense seeing as how he's obviously heavily influenced by the likes of Porter Robinson and Madeon (especially the latter). Nothing sounds "rough" or anything, except the somewhat deadmau5-inspired "Cacophony". There also seems to be a lot of influence from 8-bit/retro video game music, and he manages to excel especially at this. He's also proven himself to be capable of 5 and 6-minute epics through "Pathfinder" and "The Journey Ends", with the former in particular being his best work to date (and a standout track). "Tears" also deserves a mention for fusing "Pathfinder" and the sounds of "The Void" into one song and creating the second highlight of the album. Another advantage this album has is nearly a total lack of filler songs (except one), which is all too common in music albums these days.
There's also some flaws to this album, as there is with any debut. Perhaps the biggest issue is "Happier With You", an utter mess of a song that has absolutely no idea what it's trying to be, and it just feels like he slapped it on last-minute (it was on The Void's deluxe edition initially) because he needed an additional song so it could be classified as an album and not an EP. It is repetitive, boring and it has vocals that are all over the place and just don't add anything to the track whatsoever (in fact, they drag it down). Although "Forward" also has vocals, they are much less over the place than "Happier With You", and the song is still very good (albeit one of the weaker tracks). My other big issue with this album is the short length: with only 8 tracks, it clocks in at a couple seconds over 30 minutes, which makes it feel a little more like an EP than a full-length. He also could add some more variety to his sound, but the style we've been given here is absolutely zero issue, as it really is showing musical progress compared to "The Void" and his earlier singles (such as "Unison").
"Journey" is another addition to the list of great work done by Blyzo, especially considering how long he's been producing. Although there's blunders, they don't drag the overall album down at all and it's expected with an artist's first shot, but with all the quality tracks on the album and with all the progress he's making day after day, he is certainly proving himself to be somebody to watch over the next few years, as its shaping up as nothing short of a success story...
