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BLACK PYRAMID  self-titled  CD   (Meteor City)   13.98
self-titled IS CURRENTLY UNAVAILABLE FOR ORDER

Meteorcity isn't stopping with Elder when it comes to mining the post-Sleep quadrant of the American doom underground, as this new release from Black Pyramid will attest. This trio is also from the New England area that Elder hails from, rising from the residue of bands like Palace In Thunderland and Artimus Pyledriver, and they bring out the big Sabbathoid riffs and stoned, chantlike singing on their debut full length, complete with dark psychedelic album art, mystical overtones and lyrics about Witchlords and "hordes of death" and the Black Cauldron, which suggests that Black Pyramid take alot of their lyrical inspiration from the old fantasy series Chronicles of Prydain. There's no mistaking the influence that the legendary Sleep has had on Black Pyramid's crushing doom, with massive downtuned droning riffs and thick syrupy guitars, but these guys also inject a large amount of classic heavy metal and psychedelia into their sound. Also like Elder, these guys are gifted when it comes to creating awesome riffs, which is pretty crucial if you are going to try to drop an album of this brand of doom on us in 2009, and the nine songs on this disc are alot catchier than your typical Vitus/Sleep clone. Fans of old school American doom are especially going to be drawn to what these guys are doing; alongside the ultraheavy downtuned dirges and creeping Sab riffage, they break out lots of meaty galloping riffs and bluesy grooves and much of the album is pretty rocking, kind of like High On Fire if they were less hooked on thrash and more obsessed with early 80's heavy metal. Singer/guitarist Andy Beresky liberally spreads his drawn out psychedelic solos on songs like "Visions Of Gehenna", and there's some killer proggy noodling that shows up throughout the album as well. It sounds like there's a big Maryland doom influence on Black Pyramid too, like on "Mirror Messiah" where they channel the swinging, bloozy crunch of bands like The Obsessed and Internal Void but with vastly heavier riffage. Nothing happens here that expands the parameters of doom metal, but this album has a solid combination of catchy songs, superheavy riffs, and sprawling spaced-out trippiness that makes it a fucking winner in my book.

The disc comes in a full color digisleeve like the other new Meteorcity releases.


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