Label: AFM Records
Release date: November 13, 2020
Production: Jacob Hansen
Album length: 61.47 min
Genre: Progressive Metal/Power Metal
Rating: 9.0/10
Pyramaze have always been an interesting band when it comes to reviewing albums. Truth be told, your humble writer had never reviewed a single Pyramaze album until today, so first I had to dig back through the band’s history. These guys have been on the scene for almost 20 years, and funnily enough, especially over the last decade, they’ve been anything but predictable. Even though they play old-school progressive metal in the Scandinavian mold, heavily loaded with power metal elements. Fans of Evergrey, Beyond Twilight, even Circus Maximus or Pagan’s Mind will feel right at home here, and so will fans of Kamelot or harder-hitting rascals like Dream Evil.
At the start of the new millennium, things were going really well for the band. With Lance King on vocals and two very good albums under their belt, Pyramaze were on the verge of joining the handful of hottest bands in the genre. But then Lance left. What followed was “Immortal” (2008), with former Iced Earth singer Matt Barlow. A solid effort, but it didn’t really move the band forward. It felt like Pyramaze had suddenly run out of steam and that was that. A seven-year void followed, and in 2015 the band came back with top-class singer Terje Harøy and renowned producer Jacob Hansen, who took over as one of the guitarists and also plays bass in the studio. Hansen proved to be a very useful songwriter too, which, considering he’s one of the most respected producers around, is no surprise. The band rose from the ashes like a phoenix and delivered the superb “IV: Disciples of the Sun” (2015), followed two years later by a hugely ambitious record, a concept album called “Contingent” (2017).
So for the last five years, Pyramaze have been a band that’s found real new momentum and a fresh creative purpose. The new album, “Epitaph”, is once again a story of its own. It’s the band’s third album with a stable, unchanged lineup. After their ambitious predecessor, which got a little lost in its sweeping concept, the consolidated Pyramaze are flirting once more with the charisma of “IV: Disciples of the Sun”. With “Epitaph” they didn’t just match it in quality and artistry, they actually topped it in maturity. A giant of a record, almost 62 minutes of music, packed to the brim with wildly bombastic song development. It’s a gripping, highly atmospheric piece with drama-theater written all over it, that doesn’t skimp on fierce blasts of guitar phrases and a pumped-up production, which, in its lavish and incredibly richly stocked soundscape, also brings a distinctly dark touch of atmosphere. That gloomy “brightness” recalls the days of Beyond Twilight, which isn’t surprising, since Hansen worked with Beyond Twilight back in the day too.
2020 is truly something special because of the current situation, with no gigs anywhere. Bands could really give themselves over completely to creating material and polish it for as long as they pleased. There was plenty of time. Given the vibes that have followed us all year, it all seeps into the music indirectly, too. The melancholy is unreal. Even on this album, though on the other hand it’s bursting at the seams with bombast and pomp. With “Epitaph”, the quintet has delivered what is surely the most mature and artistically strongest record of their career. So this album isn’t really the band’s epitaph, more like a new beginning. It’s a brilliantly balanced album that constantly deals in proper doses of ultra-catchy rhetoric (peaking in incredibly memorable chorus melodies) and technical complexity. The guitars build a massive wall of phrasing, but it gets much-needed breadth and depth from the excellent keyboardist Jonah Weingarten. He’s present everywhere on the album. His arrangements often sound downright orchestral. There are eleven songs (not counting the intro). The chorus melodies are superbly honed, and the contribution of vocalist Terje Harøy deserves every superlative going. His voice might even be the central magnet of this record. Vivid, multi-layered, distinctive in every register. Explosive and as charismatic as it gets. Right where it needs to be at every single moment of this album. Interestingly, all three guest vocalists, that is, Unleash the Archers singer Brittney Slayes on Transcedence and the two former Pyramaze singers Matt Barlow and Lance King, who join Terje Harøy on the closing The Time Traveller, don’t bring any added value whatsoever. Terje Harøy is more than enough. You even get the feeling the songs would have been better if Terje Harøy had handled all the lead vocals alone. The Time Traveller clocks in at a full twelve minutes, even though the band says everything it has to say in a good five, six minutes at most. Whatever. It’s built more ambitiously than the rest of the album’s songs. Meaning its structure is looser compared to the compactness of the other compositions. It’s arranged for three different vocalists, so it needed a bit more careful attention on that front. Even though it could have been half as long, it doesn’t diminish the value of this record one bit. A single nitpick isn’t such a tragedy in the end, since the rest of the musical substance is outstanding.
“Epitaph” is an album that rewards you with every further spin. It’s highly musical, bombastic, full of brilliant vocal acrobatics and craftily seasoned arrangements, which goes for the shifting gears in the mid-eight passages too. The guitars and keyboards also deliver vivid solo duels, full of crackling crossfire. The rhythm section brings in a progressive metal format that, with Epitaph, has hit a new moment of maturity and development. Fans of the band will be thrilled. Basically, so will anyone looking for a cunning blend of musicality and complexity. Creatively inspired by the legacy of nineties prog metal in the Scandinavian mold and European power metal. “Epitaph” is simply a great album that you won’t get tired of anytime soon.
Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. Epitaph
2. A Stroke Of Magic
3. Steal My Crown
4. Knights In Shining Armour
5. Bird Of Prey
6. Your Last Call
7. Particle
8. Indestructible
9. Transcendence (feat. Brittney Slayes)
10. Final Hour
11. World Foregone
12. The Time Traveller (feat. Matt Barlow & Lance King)
Lineup:
Terje Harøy — vocals
Jonah Weingarten — keyboards, orchestrations
Toke Skjonnemand — lead guitars
Jacob Hansen — guitar, bass, backing vocals
Morten Gade Sorensen — drums
