So, we have got to sit down and talk about how subgenre crazy the extreme metal world has become. It seems like with every week that goes by another fresh batch of new “subgenres” enter the metal lexicon. You see Deafheaven can’t be filed under Black Metal because they’re really a Post Existential Crisis Alternative Shoegaze Latte outfit. Ice Nine Kills’ early stuff was metalcore, but nowadays they’ve drifted over to Slasher Showtunes. I wish good luck to whoever has to classify whatever Pyrithe’s Monuments to Impermanence (Gilead Media).

You see, Pyrithe draws from a very mixed and complicated bag of sounds here on their proper studio debut. We’ll get into the details in just a bit as I have another metal pet peeve to address. When I glanced over at the track list and noticed titles like ‘Asurviance’ and ‘Ekphrastik II: Gifts of Impermanence’ I assumed that I had walked headfirst into a concept album. A concept album like every other band seems to be indulging in these days. How about just crafting a collection of interesting songs instead of having to follow the narrative of a lone hero in a science fiction world who must battle his way to the mighty Snorlax and avenge his village. Hell, I almost had an aneurysm when I read that Machine Head’s upcoming Of Kingdom and Crown was going to be a concept album loosely inspired by Attack on Titan.

 

But now that I’ve hopped my soapbox and had two cups of coffee, I can inform you that fortunately Monuments to Impermanence doesn’t totally follow this path. Their Bandcamp page says that “Thematically, the band sees the world as apocalyptic and dreadful but through a lens of hilarity and absurdity,” but I’m not going to look too much into that. What you definitely need to know is that ‘Asurviance’ opens the album with a raucous noise that must be what a hornet’s nest hopped-up on cocaine and impatience feels like.

Remember that earlier comment about classification? Spin ‘In Praise of the Enochian Trickst’ with its weird Mike Patton style spoken vocals and John Kerr attacking the drum kit like it were on fire and tell me what it sounds like.

 

Ever wonder what Isis would’ve sounded like if Aaron Turner decided to venture into black metal? Then the aforementioned ‘Ekphrastik II’ should be a close approximation. Not sure what I’m listening to, but I like it.

 

Theme or concept? I guess there’s one, but that’s not why I’m here. Do I need a thesaurus for some of these song names? Yeah, same goes for any Trivium record. Just know that it’s a good time.

 

Buy the album here: https://gileadmedia.bandcamp.com/album/monuments-to-impermanence

 

7 / 10

HANS LOPEZ