ALBUM REVIEW: The Paths Of Time Are Vast – Black Pyramid
The Black Pyramid is supposedly a secret US base in the Alaskan wilderness which – depending on which conspiracy theory you believe – is either somehow capable of providing power for the whole of the North American landmass, is the home of some unfathomable cosmic experiment, or is an ancient monolith built by an alien race millennia ago. It’s also a great name for a metal band.
It’s been over a decade since Massachusetts psychedelic doom veterans BLACK PYRAMID released their last album, 2013’s Adversarial. With such a long break and some personnel changes, you might wonder whether they’ve ventured forth on an experimental departure from the previous sound, or whether they’re sticking to the tried and tested doom tropes of old. Well, in short, it’s actually a bit of both if new album The Paths Of Time Are Vast is anything to go by.
Opening with the 12-minute epic Bile, Blame & Blasphemy, things start off promisingly with some spacey, swirly guitars before the rumbling bass joins for the main riff, which is a beauty. The band establish a groovy, retro sound here without just aping BLACK SABBATH, although there are of course nods in that direction. The sound is suitably massive too, with picked reverb-heavy guitars adding something a bit different over the top of everything else. The extended, but not overly long, psychedelic jam in the middle works well before the band lock back into the heavy, stoner groove that drives the song, with the guitars again picking out a strangely melancholy melody which the vocals in the second half of the song mirror to great effect. The band venture into more proggy, cosmic territory again near the end without becoming indulgent, showcasing a band (especially the rhythm section of Eric Beaudry and Andy Kivela) clearly very comfortable playing with each other. The whole piece resolves with a very SABBATHY couple of minutes, though, which if anything slightly detracts from the rest of the song which has avoided such obvious comparisons up to this point.
The Crypt On The Borderlands kicks off with one of the best riffs of 2024, the fuzz and the groove combining into a monstrous headnodder. However, things change when the verses kick in, with Andy Beresky’s vocal lines following the melody of the guitar, giving the song a slightly dated, classic metal feel that doesn’t feel like it fits so well after that huge riff, which fortunately does return (maybe a little too much over the eight minutes this song lasts). By the end of this one, it does kind of feel like you’ve not really been anywhere, especially given the fact it contains another (albeit pretty good) swingy, SABBATH-influenced section in the coda.
Track three, Astral Suicide, is a typical psych-focused wigout, all bell chimes, wobbly guitar effects and tom-led rhythms a la Planet Caravan. It’s not by any means bad but will definitely feel a little familiar to fans of SABBATH and CATHEDRAL. Take Us To The Threshold, however, begins with a classic funeral doom opening and shows more of the innovation heard on the first track, this time in a more emotional, PALLBEARER-esque vein. Once that intro is out of the way, the song continues on a more experimental path with innovative drum patterns steering the verses and bridges, again giving the song depth that perhaps wasn’t there before – definitely another step in the right direction. As with the rest of the album, the production shines through here and given the quality it comes as no surprise to learn that it was produced by Justin Pizzoferrato, who has previously worked with ELDER, WITCH and DINOSAUR JR..
The title track (in three parts) is the main course of this album though, and this is an epic undertaking, again seeing the band depart further from their more obvious influences and strike off in their own direction. However, it’s a shame that vocalist and guitarist Beresky is doing his best Ozzy impression on this one which again drags it back down from the lofty heights it was aiming for.
Doom, by its very nature, is always going to have a foot in the past but it’s all too easy for bands to just listen to SABBATH so much that they end up sounding like them across an entire album and unfortunately BLACK PYRAMID do occasionally fall into that trap here. They don’t do it badly by any means but when there are so many bands really pushing the doom and stoner envelope at the moment it’s hard to be really enthusiastic about such familiar sounding material, no matter how well it’s played. That said, when the band wear their influences a little less obviously on their sleeves, they produce some real bangers. It’s just a shame those get a bit lost among the other stuff that you’ll probably feel like you’ve heard before.
Rating: 6/10
The Paths Of Time Are Vast is set for release on May 3rd via Totem Cat Records.
Like BLACK PYRAMID on Facebook.