SYK : "Pyramiden"

 

The biggest strength of this Italian band is their vocalist, Dahlia Krayos. If they had opted for another male growler for what would have been a very grooving, take on progressive death metal, but at the end of the day would have sounded like everyone else. The first song hits you and is no different in its hand that it takes you by surprise, the second song you begin to get your bearing and hear what is going. The drummer is impressive, but really with this kind of music you have to be. The guitars could stand to groove more is the impression the second song begins to give me. Her melodies wander around the spinning labyrinth of riffs she is forced to work with and for the most part makes the best of what is going on here. Not a great deal of room for hooks.  

The mix is weird as it sounds, she is singing metal karaoke at times, her voice sounds separate from the blur of guitars churning under her by the time we get to 'the Hollow Mother". It begins to feel like they are more about this sound than the song. She needs more breathing room than the math of the guitar is yielding.  Aside from the opening track the rest of the songs are pretty reasonable lengths. The faster paced "Zoas" ,  the vocals gliding they have been for the bulk of the album just over a faster riff . There is a weird harmonic dissonance to it at times. When they slow back down , aside from being locked in the grinding machine like throb of Meshuggah, the vocals are given more room. The bass is kinda buried in all of this . The speed begin to vary , though the tones remain the same. 

Dizzying speeds once again factor in when we get to "When Fire Fell into Water".  It is dense with little to give in terms of being able to hook you in. The sentiment of the vocals is not as effective here as it feels like the formula in place is going to the well too many times. Musically things do not change a great deal on the last song, but the vocals find more purpose making the overall song work more as a whole. I will keep this band on my radar as I like what they do, I will give this album an 8 as what they do carries it on the sound, though for my regular listening would prefer the vocals given more focus in the songs. Out on Housecore Records.