Stagnation is Death. Could be the name of a new metal band, huh? Or an album title. Neither is wrong. Basically it‘s the programmatic slogan which might help to understand Pyramids‘ new record Pythagoras. We will try to make you understand what we and the band mean with that slogan.
The new Pyramids record comes after a long time waiting which in the end seemed like a finite indefinite hiatus, even though there had never been any announcement of the like. It is merely to be attributed to the band‘s inner wish not to repeat or to release something inferior to their previous work. And as inspiration cannot be set against a timer saying “NOW!“, one has to wait. It will come and hit you whenever it wants to.
Giving Pythagoras an initial spin one might consider it to be one of these AI-generated things where a bot tries to use the name of a known artist. But lo and behold, no this is the real deal. This is Pyramids 2025 and when one comes to think about it, the grandeur of this record becomes even bigger. This is a conscious mash-up of things many, including yours truly, thought to be impossible to connect and bring together. Reggaeton and Blackgaze; please think of the latter as the only good term for a combination equally footed in Black Metal and Shoegaze, not as the generic idea of a specific genre, this is nothing like the mighty Skyforger or other bands that use it as an idea to mix two thirds Black Metal with one third symphonic Shoegaze. Pyramids are Blackgaze in the 100% sense of both worlds – the riffs are Shoegaze and many of the underlying beats are Black Metal, oftentimes blastbeats. The same can and must be said about Pythagoras - a title they “only” used in order to give us an example of a thinker sometimes so complicated it is hard to see the beauty behind (or in front?) of all the elements.
When you listen to the ”Pretty Pigs”, “Mira Mirame Brillar” or the opener ”Fools Gold (Mi Vida Ha Ido Pa Atras)” you will surely notice the amazing well-laid out layers of Shoegaze which constitute a dense woven veil of soundscapes behind or amidst which many many things can be integrated. One of these are the Black Metal drums which often take a step behind all the other elements and which are most audible in the form of real blasts. The other rhythm is something that hadn’t been there before in the Texan band – a different rhythm and here we come to Rich Balling’s source of inspiration: Reggaeton and Neoperreo. Two Latin music genres that most Europeans know nothing about (ok, probably just like yours truly!). The two should not be regarded as Rich’s wish to come up with something new, something highly different just for the sake of doing so, for the smashing up of ingredients that do not go together or do not combine for a great new taste on our buds. They were part of Rich’s palate cleansing several years back and thus when he had arrived at the point where nothing extreme could soothe his nerves, his strife for the ever more extreme and most extreme and then beyond even that. When Lo-Fi Paganistic Ashram Throatsinging Blackened Death Folk from the tips of the Kilimanjaro (please do not ask me for an example, you know it’s just made up!) didn’t serve his needs anymore, he did what many of us do – turn to something else and often that something else is found in the more simple, more reduced realms of Pop music. Where every single tone means a lot because it can decide between the big success bringing generational wealth or the downfall in the ears of the mainstream radio audience leading to endless misery. Do not get me wrong, in our realms also every single note counts a lot, but most of the musicians/bands/projects found on VoS do not rely on music as their primary source of income.
So, there he was with these two genres that he wanted to incorporate into the Pyramids sound and the result is simply amazing – elongated Reggaeton beats syncopated to lay over the Black Metal screams that are paired up with one or two guitar lines (there are several in each track) and above that the Shoegaze parts, underneath some of the Black Metal parts. To top it all off, they connected with neoperreo singer Emy Smith who had never done something like this, but her lush, warm and yet, sometimes also distant, vocals pair so perfectly with this new version of Pyramids that one might not be surprised to find it on some Latin American rock station, because using horns in one song, a classic rock guitar solo in another, some soaring laid back vocals in a third one and all of that combined with two sound-universes never connected before on this level – that surely required loads of time, patience, honesty and truthfulness to one’s base and one’s vision. Pyramids are not dead, but stagnation is dead. They are alive, kicking and onto something uniquely new. Thanks folks for showing us that one can still find new paths to venture on!
PS: If you listen to the final track ”God of Light” and do not find yourself nodding your head along to the band and singing along to lyrics you do not understand or simply make up in your head, you have not been listening to the tracks before. I see myself sungazing somewhere in Baja California with Deafheaven on a Latin Remix Station in a background and a nice, mightly lemony virgin mojito in my hand!
