Labels: Hydra Head
Review by: Graeme Cunningham
Initially I thought this was the same Pyramids who had an album on Level plane a while back. I was completely wrong in this assumption. These guys are on Hydrahead and have very little in common with the previous pyramids.
The opening track “Sleds” is agreeable enough. Disembodied vocals swimming in a fish tank of ambient shimmering noise. Its quite like flotarium music. Go on, light some candles, relax, you deserve it! But no. Just as you settle in amongst this calm, track two crashes in and we make a horrifying discovery. Their drum machine is broken! At least I hope that�s their excuse (and at least I hope it�s a drum machine, because I feel sorry for the poor sod behind the kit if its not). �Tat-Tat-tat-tat�� off it goes, like a Duracell bunny bashing away on a biscuit tin. This sets the template for drum sound throughout the recording. These trebly little tap-a-tap noises rattle away at near blast beat pace, seemingly paying no attention whatsoever to the wall of reverb and noise that is bouncing, swelling, building and decaying all over the damn shop.
To be honest, after three or four tracks of what sound like Armageddon via line 6 delay pedal, I was getting a bit tired of this nonsense. Underneath the horrendous drum programs and the multi-layered vocals, there are some great sounds. But it just gets lost in amongst the terrible production. This record has the scent of some metal band discovering loveless a decade too late in life and attempting to launch themselves as the new leaders of a shoe gaze/post metal crossover movement. They�ve failed. Or more to the point the drums have failed. But despite all its flaws (and there are many) this is quite interesting. Interesting is good. Maybe next time it�ll be interesting and listenable.
(the full version of this apparently has a remix CD included, but they must have all been mince because they didn�t send us them to review).