BLACK PYRAMID ARE HOT BLOODED, ASK YOU TO CHECK IT AND SEE ON BLACK PYRAMID
Those of you that follow my writing on MetalSucks (There HAS to be one of you! There HAS to…) know I’m quite fond of black metal, sad doom metal, introspective post-metal, and whatever other stuff the downtrodden end of the heavy spectrum has to offer. The problem with this is that the weather’s not always conducive to black metal (granted, I live in New England, so four to six months out of the year is VERY conductive to black metal). So driving around when it’s 89 degrees, sunny, and humid listening to Enslaved’s Frost is a nauseatingly paradoxical experience. Thus, God (well, Black Sabbath, so close enough) created stoner metal, stoner doom, trad doom, and so on for such weather. Nothing fits oppressively hot days (or just nice days) like down tuned riffs played at a comfortable speed with some dude bellowing (or, if the mood is right, screaming) over it. Maybe it’s the mind’s reflex to associate the bluesy riffs most often employed in that genre with sticky Mississippi Delta summers, or maybe it’s just the easiest music to have a beer or bowl with, but it seems much more apt to endure the summer with the sticky sweetness stoner doom (and so on) has to offer.
For this, enter Black Pyramid.
Though this year isn’t necessarily short on car-windows-down hot-day metal (see High on Fire’s excellent Snakes for the Divine, Thou’s magnificent Summit for when it gets really warm, and even Nachtmystium’s weird-but-wonderful Addicts: Black Meddle Part 2), Black Pyramid hit a sweet spot begging to be hit. Tight and well-constructed yet comfortable and self-assured, the band nail the necessary points on their self-titled debut full length. There’s an initial sense of “this is too easy,” i.e. The Sword, but after time, the band reveals itself to be the real deal, soaked in trad doom’s hazy heaviness and stoner metal’s wonderful lethargy. But even amidst the inviting and accessible riffcraft, there’s still a sense of something epic and heavy (see “Visions of Gehenna”’s monstrous swagger, the horn-worthy “Cauldron,” and the you-are-not-worthy second half of closer “Wintermute”). Black Pyramid do what so many of their contemporaries can’t: draw in those turned off by extreme metal’s screaming with hooks and riffs, and at the same time entice some of extreme metal’s gloomiest motherfuckers with well-assembled, top notch metal. This, of course, is not an easy feat to pull off.
The band falter, however, when their roots show a little too easily. They sometimes lean too heavily on Sleep’s trad metal worship, and the intro “The Worm Ouroboros” owes a little too much to the Iommi/Geezer interplay of early Sabbath (even borrowing from “Iron Man” about ¾ of the way through). But I only make this complaint because the band sound like they could transcend being a simple rehash job and become a behemoth of their own: they have the riffs, the mood, and the confidence to do so. So many bands take a few bong hits and think they’re Electric Wizard; Black Pyramid are not one of those bands. They seem to truly love metal’s filthy, down-tuned beginnings and its slow-going disciples. Nothing about Black Pyramid scream “pointless nostalgia,” but instead awesome metal with potential. Though June and onward usually means putting your Darkthrone albums away, it doesn’t mean one must give up metal for the Beach Boys until the days get shorter again. Black Pyramid ably fill that void.
(3 1/2 out of 5 horns)
-SO
