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The Funeral Pyre: Wounds

15/06/10 || InquisitorGeneralis

You can’t judge a fat chick by her blubber. No really, you can’t. I don’t. I’ve gotten biblical with a beluga before and enjoyed it quite a bit. There’s my little nugget of wisdom for the day, go forth and copulate with the large ladies dominators, they need you and are so desperate they would probably let you listen to Aeon or Anaal Nakraath while you pound their greasy, layered flesh. Bonus

You also can’t judge a book, or in this case, a cd by its cover. Well, with The Funeral Pyre I did just that: judged an album by the band’s name and cover art. See, I received this big box of discarded cd’s and promos a few months back and I picked “Wounds” out of the pile solely based on the cool metal-sounding name and kickass cover art. Funeral Pyres are pretty trve, grim, and necro. Darth Vader got one, ‘nuff said. Chances are all you will get to memorialize your demise is just a bunch of jerk-offs who don’t really like you standing around a hole in the dirt waiting for the food at the party afterwards. Read the following sentence while imagining an old Jewish dude from New York saying it…

A towering inferno to consume your flesh? We should all be so lucky!

Also, the cover art is pretty fucken cool too. First, the white background sets it apart from most other shit on the metal rack. Second, I just like the image of the evil/sad/angel/chick thingy. So sue me! It’s hard to find an original, eye-catching cover these days.

So, does the music live up to the packaging? In most respects yes. There is definitely a lot of promise in these California melodic black/death hybrid fuckholes. I smell some Arsis and Vornagar in these guys, and I like it. There is no lack of aggression, some excellent melodic guitar work, and several interesting song structures. However, there are some negatives festering in “Wounds” too: vocals that get real old, real quick and many blastastic sections that (like the vocals) wear out their welcome quickly. Apparently, The Funeral Pyre used to have a chick on keyboards but dropped her ass before making “Wounds”. Good move fellas, except for a few extremely rare cases keyboards in extreme metal lead to a total shitfest.

Back to the good, on songs like the album’s finest “Arches of existence”, “These ties that bind”, and the closer “Ghostwalker” The Funeral Pyre find a nice, happy medium between black speed and death groove with some melody tossed in for good measure. The breakdown and solo in the middle of “These ties that bind” is especially awesome. “Arches of existence” is killer and is what the band should shoot for every time in terms of pacing and guitar work. The title track is also enjoyable and shows the band put some effort in to write longer, interesting songs. When he’s not just blindly blasting away Alex Hernadez does lay down some solid grooves but his drumming is nothing mind-blowing. There are many spots on the album where blasting is just not needed. Slow down a bit amigo, trust me that’s when you, and the band, are really at your best.

Vocals are the big drawback here for two reasons. One, John Strachan maintains the same high-pitched, raspy shout throughout the entire record and it just gets annoying after a bit. I guess that is the blackness coming through. While they do not ruin “Wounds”, they are a noticeable drawback for me. If this record had more death-like, lower vocals I would be changing my underwear with every listen. The second problem is something I have mentioned in reviews before, the dreaded “Dying Fetus Syndrome” where there are just too many goddamn vocals in the song. Thankfully this is not every song but there are some definite points on “Wounds” where Johnnycake needs to just shut the fuck up and let the band law down the blackened melodic grooves it can do surprisingly well.

I like “Wounds” and I think if The Funeral Pyre keeps going in this direction there may be a classic album in them. For me to say that about a band that is considered more Black Metal than anything else, that is really fucking saying something. Again, thank Baphomet they dropped the keyboards. I really think though that a lot of people who frequent Teh Domination and our forums will really really like this so definitely check “Wounds” out, even though my personal score is pretty good, but not insanely great.

7,5

Information
Released: 2008
Label: Prosthetic
Website: The Funeral Pyre MySpace
Band
John Strachan: vocals
Jimmy Joyce: guitar
Justin “J-Bone”: guitar
Adam Campbell: bass
Alex Hernandez: drums

Tracklist
01. Thieves
02. Black Earth
03. The Gathering Bones
04. Wounds
05. These Ties That Bind
06. Arches of Existence
07. When the Light Ends
08. Devourer
09. Ghost Walker

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