Album Review: Tevvez Keeps The Legacy Of Zyzz Alive With 'Phantom'

Palo Alto CA

26 August, 2021

6:24 PM

Description

By Will Li, The Stanford Daily August 26, 2021 The date is Aug. 5, 2011. Bodybuilder Aziz Sergeyevich Shavershian, better known as Zyzz, is found dead in a sauna from a heart attack, becoming the fitness industry's equivalent to Juice WRLD or XXXTentacion. The young Soviet-born, Australian-immigrated "son of Zeus" revolutionized fitness by popularizing aesthetics — training to look like a Greek god. He had suffered bullying as a skinny child and began lifting weights as an adolescent. And as he shared his progress and his catchphrases of "We're all gonna make it" and "Everyone has a little bit of Zyzz in them" on social media, he garnered millions of supporters, even though he chose to use controversial supplements later in life. Zyzz ultimately inspired a legacy of pursuing dreams apart from the monotony of everyday life, with freedom from worries about what others think. After his death, fans honored him by composing "Zyzz hardstyle" music similar to the genre he danced to. Enter onto the scene Tevvez. The prolific French artist has produced a prodigious portfolio of Zyzz memorial songs and video accompaniments. On this 10 year anniversary of Zyzz's passing, I would like to dive into Tevvez's most recent album, "Phantom." This 12-track, 42 minute album romanticizes the journey and legacy of Zyzz with layers of orchestra-like chords and intense, resounding kick drums that comprise the songs' baselines and dictate the tempo. The track names, such as "Vision", "Guardian Angel" and "Legacy", also pay tribute to Zyzz, and the album cover depicts him ascending to the clouds. "Phantom" includes almost no vocals except for bits of choir-like singing at the beginning of some songs. Essentially, any human voice functions as just another instrument in the symphonic masterpieces of Tevvez's tracks. The album also includes both major and minor tones to contrast the inspiration Zyzz provided and the sadness of his passing. With both computer-generated and classical instrument sounds, the musical style resembles a blend of techno, trance and hardstyle that is more sophisticated than either genre alone. Generally, the individual tracks commence with simple, light melodies. Over the course of each song, deep chords, kickdrums and other features like clap drums are smoothly woven in after dramatic pauses. The songs later return to the basic melody before building back up to greater intensity than earlier, evoking fervent feelings of strength and determination. The musical variation among the songs allows the album to string together different aspects of Zyzz's life and legacy in an elaborate narrative. The opening track, "Vision", begins with a slow, brooding melody as if symbolizing the bullying Zyzz suffered and progresses to distorted arpeggios as though representing Zyzz's dejection from the bullying and his subsequent vision to transform himself. The track then diverges to perhaps portray Zyzz's hard work, exhibiting faster tempo and exhilarating drum sequences like a rock song, and concludes similarly to the same way it began to possibly depict Zyzz's passing. Continuing to tell the story of his life, "Infinity" starts with eloquent, high-pitched wailing juxtaposed with sorrowful chords, perhaps representing an individual mourning. The song then switches to a bouncing melody as though symbolizing the sparks of hope Zyzz provided fans, and continues to add layers of chords and kickdrums to possibly denote the individual's endeavor to achieve their dreams — ultimately conveying that Zyzz's essence will remain on Earth infinitely. My favorite piece by far is "Legend." Compared to other tracks, "Legend" evokes the most emotion and displays the greatest contrast between the climax and the mellower preliminary themes. The song begins with a short drumroll and an elaborate prelude that resembles funeral music. Then, after an epic crescendo, the air is quiet for a transient moment. A thundering beat drop shatters the fleeting tranquility, and the ensuing climax seemingly portrays the awakening of a sleeping giant with its emphatic kickdrums, possibly corresponding to the posthumous popularity of Zyzz in the past decade. "Phantom" proves extremely useful for a Zyzz-worthy purpose: pushing past limits in the gym. Especially on high volume, the intense chords, beat and kickdrums evoke passion and motivation, perhaps in an attempt to drown out any perception of pain. I would consider "Phantom" to be Tevvez's greatest album. It includes all the musical styles he utilized in previous albums, such as "Waves," "Obsidian" and "Divinity," while also sounding noticeably more refined and intricate than previous works, with cleaner and purer-sounding chords. In honesty, I find no fault with this album. Considering its songs together, I feel that "Phantom" excels at generating a desolate depiction of Zyzz's childhood and death, as well as serving as a poignant call-to-action for listeners to better themselves. The distinct elements of each song and the album's short duration ensure that the listener never feels jaded. It is, therefore, no surprise that the comment sections of "Phantom's" songs on YouTube are almost exclusively filled with praise for masterfully preserving Zyzz's spirit and inspiring millions to pursue their dreams. The Stanford Daily is the independent, student-run newspaper of Stanford University. Read more of their stories at StanfordDaily.com.