Pyrrhon
An Excellent Slave But A Terrible
Master
Selfmadegod
New York’s Pyrrhon first came to my attention through the 'NYC Sucks Vol. 1' compilation released by the MetalSucks team last year,
with the track ‘King of All Tears’. It was a furious blast through three
minutes twentyseven seconds of frenetic tech-death metal, with a nice technical sheen that
wasn’t too over the top. When they self-released ‘An Excellent Slave but a Terrible Master’ earlier this year, I was
quick to pick it up from their Bandcamp page, but for some reason, I
continually pushed it aside as the number of new releases began to catch up.
Having recently been acquired by Polish label Selfmadegod, the time was right
to get a taste of the first Pyrrhon full-length. Why did I leave it so long?
Obviously there’s a lot of tech-death stuff floating around, and some more razzle dazzle than others. Pyrrhon are flashy but not in a kind of attention-starved child fashion. They’re not ashamed to show off their wizardry and indeed their influences – there’s some substantial Gorguts influence here, more than a dash of Suffocation, and the band admit to being in thrall to Deathspell Omega - but nor are they afraid to even out the mix and throw in some nice ideas. Heck, some ideas? How about lots of tricks and nuances, old and occasionally new. The gang vocals in ‘New Parasite’ you’re more likely to see in hardcore than in any form of death metal, but it works pretty well, though brief within the context of the songs.
The album reveals itself
more and more as it goes on, continuing down the path of mind-buggery but
again, without alienating the listener. The bass intro at the beginning of
‘Correcting a Mistake’ is a nice touch, showcasing bassist Erik Malave’s
ridiculous ability and preparing you for the riff that follows it about thirty
seconds in. That song provides one of the few mosh-out moments, with quite a
few riffs in there to make you bang your head, despite still being batshit crazy
at the same time.
Guitarist Dylan DeLilla is
equally enchanting, providing a tiptop performance throughout. Yeah, there’s
plenty of squeals and pinch harmonics coming out of the guitar at various
points on the album, but they’re done to serve the numerous riffs on display,
and not just as mindless buggery – ‘Idiot Circles’ a fine example with a
mosh-friendly riff. His solos are just incredible as well, like Fredrik
Thordenthal getting sucked slowly through a vortex at times. Wonderfully
psychedelic and quite otherworldly in their feel, almost as if you’re drifting
in and out of consciousness. Not at all reverting to form, but it works
staggeringly well. Drummer Alex Cohen is nothing if not imperious, from one
drummer to another. He blasts, fills, rolls, pushes and pulls with absolute
precision.
Lyrically, ‘An Excellent
Slave’ is one of the finest you’ll see all year, a credit to vocalist Doug
Moore. One look at the album’s lyrics makes you realise we’re not dealing with
fantasy realms or mere obsessions with death, gore, etc. From the outset, ‘An
Excellent Slave…’ paints a picture of despondence with the modern world, with
city life. ‘New Parasite’ is seemingly brought to you, the listener, from the
gutters, the sewers of NYC. Take the opening lines, for example:
‘The subway tunnels sigh
Damp air rushing up through oiled grates
Drawn from phlegmy pools
That fester beneath the streets’
Damp air rushing up through oiled grates
Drawn from phlegmy pools
That fester beneath the streets’
One of the greatest tracks
on the album is ‘Flesh Isolation Chamber’, a near eight-and-a-half minute
monster. It begins with a by now fairly typical speedy riff with an
atmospheric, spacey and altogether stripped down section, slowed down
altogether, leaving a feeling of aural weightlessness. Moore’s vocals here are slightly cleaner – by
which I mean, his lyrics can be heard – and here he delivers yet more
intriguing words when he scowls ‘which is worse/always being watched/or never
being seen?’
‘An Excellent Slave…’ is certainly a technical death metal record
per se, but it doesn’t entirely rely on guitar noodlery or constant blastbeats to get it by. Yes,
riffs are tight, taut and damn complex but not in such a suffocating way that
it becomes one great big salad. The balance is just about right. It’s not a
perfect album by any means – I had to listen to it several times to convey what
I wanted to in this review, because it’s not exactly memorable or catchy, and
as such it needs a lot of close attention to fully appreciate what Pyrrhon are
out to do. However, we’re only talking about a debut effort here, and already
I’d put these guys in the same modern day bracket as Ulcerate, Origin,
Necrophagist, etc. Seriously, go out and purchase this record. I hightly recommend that you do.
This was available as a
name-your-price download before Selfmadegod signed Pyrrhon up. Now you can only
stream two of the tracks – ‘Idiot Circles’ and ‘The Architect Confesses
(Spittlestrand Hair)’. It’s a shame the income is no longer directed entirely
towards Pyrrhon’s coffers, despite the fact they entirely financed the original
recording, but now they’re signed up, hopefully they’re on the road to relative
stardom. And with music as challenging and as thought-provoking as it is heavy,
you wouldn’t bet against it.
Peter
Clegg
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