1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
More focused than the 2008 debut., December 30, 2009
This review is from: Pyramids with Nadja (Audio CD)
Pyramid's self titled debut last year was in a word, perplexing. Its nightmarish soundscaping seemed to take the aesthetic most atmospheric black metal strives for (distant , otherworldly tonality created with lots of dry reverb effects I'd guess) and then went the extra mile by confounding me, and likely a lot of others with a sound that was forebodingly cold. So cold. In the band's unique power to create a disturbing landscape of black metal stripped down to its basics, it also approached another less than palatable genre in that of shoegaze, You know how you'll listen to a passage in one of your favorite songs and your nipples get hard because it's so amazing, that climax of energy and passion that marks a great piece of music? With the Pyramids album, it was a physical cold. Get me my goddamn sweater.
I'm starting to get into the music of Aidan Baker and the small fraction of his catalog I've heard has impressed me. That's why when I heard he'd be working with these Texan riff-raffs, the cold came over my body again and my nipples again arised. The result is an opus that finds the Pyramids guys sounding locked into a solid focus on song structure, of which their debut lacked. It's amusing to think that Baker, no traditional songsmith himself, was maybe able to discipline these guys into concentrating on their strengths. The drums, when they make their presence felt, blend seamlessly into the heavy droning pulse of the Nadja influence. Even the vocals don't sound out of place. Pyramids with Nadja. A conjugation that sounds as natural as the mossy stones on the cover art.
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