Friday, November 11, 2011

Pyramido: Salt (2011)

Review

To round out the TotalRust theme week, we have Sweden's Pyramido. The band sticks out like a sore thumb in the Swedish metal scene, with their hordes of death metal bands, rapidly proliferating retro heavy metal bands, and stalwart black metal bands. I don't think I can name another Swedish sludge band. Salt is the band's second full-length, after a debut that received a fair degree of hype.

On top of the sludge metal heap right now is the Georgia scene, which, excepting a few like Black Tusk and Withered, is relatively mellow. But Pyramido has an ugly, raging, hardcore-infused brand of old-school sludge that has a lot more in common with Crowbar and Kingdom of Sorrow. This is New Orleans by way of Malmö.


Innovation is not the name of the game here. Instead, you'll find mostly mid-paced sludge with hardcore screaming and solid riffsmanship. The only curveball here is instrumental "Saltstoder", featuring an engaging synth melody. If they wanted to experiment further, that would be an interesting direction to go. The production is very good, with a raw feel and fully audible bass.



The Verdict: Salt rubs itself into your open wounds with raging old-school sludge. It's a very solid album, if not a game-changer. I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

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