Genre : Stoner Rock reeking (the promise of) Doom
Label : MeteorCity Records
Origin : Hell, naturally.
Rating : 5.0 / 10
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It seems super-easy to understand where Black Pyramid is coming from, as this group is quick to establish the basic rule set by channeling coarse epic rock and almost-power metal vibes with a doomy heft and timber to get the actual point across. My primordial concern is that with the latter sentence I have just wrote-, I told you pretty much everything I feel there is to be told about this delivery. "Doomy" never turns to "doom" herein, the coarse epicness never puts goosebumps on your soft skin, yet, in my opinion, being forced to produce a physical reaction to doom music is the minimum a doom aficionado can expect. I DO want to be blown away by this release, as I am blown away by Argus' latest doom offering Boldly Stride the Doomed, yet this baby here, while packs theoretical sex appeal from top to bottom, (on paper, that is) simply does not impose relevant danger to my trusty little Geiger counter, you catch my drift? Read on to find out more about this rock-orthodox stoner rock album.
With a program time of 60 minutes of super-homogeneous stoning - with two songs clocking in above the ten minutes mark, one above 15, even - I personally feel the release is stupendously self-indulgent and has an ubiquitous set of minor difficulties deciding what "exactly" to do, and how "long" to do "that" for. Still here? WOW. The band follows and exhibits mostly - if not entirely - orthodox compositional techniques similar to that of ancient doom groups like Pentragram, - check out their latest album, superb record to put yourself to sleep with in 2 seconds - yet, in my opinion, the Danger-, the Animal contained in Black Sabbath does not accept the invitation to be featured on this delivery. It never touched the fucking envelope. The songs simply ain't that fun, nor that dangerous, the hooks reek sweat and worse, and the band, as hinted, has a reoccurring tendency to prolong simplistic musical ideas to their own pleasure. The jam session in track number 4, "Dreams of the Dead", for example. A tormented-, stone-simplistic guitar riff collides with a bonfire chord structure for eternal aeon-minutes. What?? The title justifies the means? You might be right about that.
Black Pyramid, in my opinion is pretty above average at best, and I do not think it is that harsh of a thing to say when you witness what the prominent representatives of the genre offer to this day, - hell, a Mors Subita intro packs triple the doom this album has the concept of or the access to - then why satisfy with less? I feel the release is packed with musical sections the whole would looked better without, simply because they are not that well defined, nor that well articulated or well presented. Granted, there is not much on this bloated LP that falls below the minimal expectation levels of my secretive inner stoner rocker, but I'm damn sure that there is zero on it that registers as manna for it.
A bloated-, relatively uninspired release with a modest set of charms that will start to reek sweat pretty swiftly, simply because the whole album takes itself much more seriously than the character of its (intended) music is flattered by the band members. The release suffers legendarily from a falsely positioned self-image of its own capacities, in my opinion. Other than that, I've heard worse. (A few times.)
Rating : 5.0 / 10
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