Black Pyramid - Adversarial (2013)

Black Pyramid bears the distinction of being the band that made me care about my home state’s metal scene.

Massachusetts has always been noted primarily for its strong hardcore scene, which differentiated itself from others by including heavy metal fans and incorporating metal’s influence more closely into its sound. That helped make my home state the focal point for the melodic metalcore boom in the early 2000’s; Aftershock and Overcast split up, Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall formed from the ashes, and suddenly there was a new trend on our hands. The popularity of Killswitch Engage was a big deal to my 14-year-old self, as The End of Heartache was one of the first albums with harsh vocals I ever heard, but I soon found that few of their melodic metalcore brethren could scratch the same itch that Slayer and Opeth could.

This poses a problem when your local scene is dominated by bad –core bands. For years, every local show I could find in the area was full of lame, breakdown-infested, riff-deprived junk, with the only real metal shows being the 21+ gigs at Ralph’s Diner in Worcester. Every now and then I would discover a decent metal band from the area (not counting ones that had made it big, like Isis), but Black Pyramid’s self-tited debut was the first to really impress me. Since then, I’ve discovered a ton of good metal from Massachusetts – Olde Growth, Rozamov, Faces of Bayon, Magic Circle, Blessed Offal, Elder – but Black Pyramid still holds a special place in my heart.

Adversarial is the doom trio’s third album, and the first with guitarist/vocalist Darryl Shephard, who replaced original frontman Andy Beresky following a strange set of circumstances. The change in membership has certainly had an impact on Black Pyramid’s sound, but thankfully not the quality of their work, as Adversarial is a shorter-yet-still-sweet chunk of awesome riffs. There are only five songs, with the album coming in at under 40 minutes (more than 10 minutes shorter than both of their previous albums), but each of them offer something worth hearing, and overall the album is rawer and more vicious than previous Black Pyramid music.

If there was any doubt following Andy Beresky’s departure whether Black Pyramid could bring the riffs, those doubt should be immediately erased by ‘Swing the Scimitar’ the first track on the album and one of the best things the band has ever recorded (as well as having one of the most badass song titles in existence). The song is the first (and so far, only) in Black Pyramid’s discography to feature primarily harsh vocals, and the heavy-as-hell riff in the first half should please lots of High on Fire fans. As killer as the first half is, however, it is the second half, filled with psychedelic atmospherics that sound somewhat Elder-influenced, that makes the song shine.

The other song that sticks out stylistically is ‘Aphelion,’ the first song to be released from the album and the most traditionally stoner-sounding song on the album. Where the rest of the album tends to push forward aggressively, ‘Aphelion’ takes a more laid-back, bluesy approach, meant less for headbanging and more for being locked to your couch in a hazy cloud of ganja smoke.

The other songs are more in line with the traditional Black Pyramid sound. ‘Bleed Out’ is the most vicious of the three, while the instrumental ‘Issus’ is the most melodic. ‘Onyx & Obsidian’ is possibly the most ambitious song on the album (competing with ‘Swing the Scimitar’ for the title), with some simple-but-brilliant bass in the intro courtesy of Gein, infectiously catchy vocal melodies from Darryl, and one of my favorite Black Pyramid guitar solos.

Where many bands wither and die after losing a crucial member, Black Pyramid has survived by altering their sound just enough to differentiate it from their old material, but without forgetting what made the band special in the first place. Adversarial shows a lot of promise for the band’s new direction, and – coming from a local fan – a lot of promise for the state of my local scene as well.

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