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Pyrrhon: The mother of virtues
21/04/14 || The Duff
‘For fans of Ulcerate’ and you can count me in. Pyrrhon for me have remained unheard of up until the buzz surrounding this, their third full-length album (their first being a five track affair, so potentially an EP). The influence on this record is clear – Gorguts, but messy as fuck. Where the Canadian legends have become such a focused channeling of sound, a majestic rise-and-fall of energy, Pyrrhon are taking melody and using it to spit in your mouth; take the aggression of “Vermis” (Ulcerate) and the razzle-dazzle of “Atrophy” (Baring Teeth) throw it into a bag of wasps and you got “The Mother of Virtues”.
There are also of all things call-backs to maudlin of the Well’s middle-albums, the conceptual pieces “Leaving Your Body Map” and “Bath”, Converge hardcore and early The Dillinger Escape Plan, tongue-in-cheek-bleak Melvins and even dare I say the odd Mastodon-like melody or styling, something along the lines of These Arms Are Snakes, those soaring melodies but far more chaotic, the flare of Cephalic Carnage’s “Lucid Interval”, Minsk and then what band of this ilk would be without the fury of Portal-like tremolo and Deathspell Omega ringing ominons?
That is my new word for the day, anytime now please for those royalties, Webster; I still haven’t heard about those other two – horsegasm and foetalbutter.
The musicianship is off the charts, intense, spitfire and sporadic, yet nothing plays ahead, this is a succinct message even for say the center-piece “Eternity in a Breath” which is a barbaric, trawling beast that never truly lifts off – saying that, not a note is wasted on this record with the exception of the closing track where the end desperately becomes jumbled before slotting back into structure, the progression of this record otherwise does not put a foot wrong.
The production is quite light, almost fluffy with a huge, buzzing, clear bass like a red and rumbling spot in the middle of your lover’s ass; you can appreciate the rest of the view, but your eyes always come back to that undulant pustule, keeping you silenced, asking if she would like any water before you get into round 2. The vocals are colorful, reminding me of The Curator of Portal-fame, black metal rasps, low-guttural Luc Lemay of Gorguts and hardcore or spoken like Converge, to Pig Destroyer’s Scott Hull and then the bellows of the Neurisis frontmen or the Ocean “Aeolian”-era.
My life has certainly gotten better having discovered Pyrrhon; their message is immediate, you will either latch onto this record directly and then blend into the nuances, or you will hate it – if you are a fan already of this kind of style, then I’m certain you will be seduced. The one downpoint would probably be the lyrics, which are dark, rather run-of-the-mill poems, delivered with enough gusto and enough white noise to make them indiscernible so evidently the content itself isn’t really up for debate; there are some golden stanzas for sure, but most of this is bilious, rage.
As for comparisons to their second record which I am also becoming acquainted with, their sound is lighter on this one, angrier, less polished and less organized. This record’s predecessor is a fantastic ride, it is structured and a lot more riff-centered where this is harrowing, unsteady – “An Excellent Servant…” could quite easily be compared to The Red Chord at times, whereas this is more of a unique record, spacious, for me regretfully so as the focus rests on an almost meandering fury, “The Mother of Virtues” is a regression in style but then a more unusual record for it.
- Information
- Released: 2014
- Label: Relapse Records
- Website: Pyrrhon Facebook
- Band
- Erik Malave: bass
- Alex Cohen: drums
- Dylan DiLella: guitars
- Doug Moore: vocals
- Tracklist
- 01. The Oracle of Nassau
- 02. White Flag
- 03. Sleeper Agent
- 04. Balkanized
- 05. Eternity In a Breath
- 06. Implant Fever
- 07. Invisible Injury
- 08. The Parasite in Winter
- 09. The Mother of Virtues
