Release Date: May 03rd 2024. Record Label: Totem Cat Records. Formats: CD/DD/Vinyl
The Paths Of Time Are Vast - Tracklisting
1. Bile, Blame And Blasphemy
2. The Crypt On The Borderlands
3. Astral Suicide
4. Take Us To The Threshold
5. The Paths Of Time Are Vast, Part I
6. The Paths Of Time Are Vast, Part II
7. The Paths Of Time Are Vast, Part III
8. The Quantum Phoenix
Band Members
Andy Beresky - guitar and vocals
Eric Beaudry - bass
Andy Kivela - drums
Review
Psych Doom/Stoner Metal legends Black Pyramid release their first new album in eleven years with The Paths Of Time Are Vast. The record is one epic tale of loss and redemption, death and rebirth, fire and frost. Says frontman Andy Beresky: "This album is your golden ticket to voyage beyond the realms of birth and dead, to take the journey through the many doors of radiant reality and dark dimension, to tread the celestial pathways carved in the carcasses of the stars, and to finally taste the vastness of time and space."
Black Pyramid navigates around the whole Heavy Metal Spectrum with the band moving into Prog Rock/Metal surroundings with their trademark style of Psych Doom and Stoner Metal grooves. Andy Beresky is on first class form with his majestic vocal performance which has a more classic Heavy Metal approach with his style being influenced by Ozzy, Dio and Bruce Dickinson at various parts of the album.
The opening track Bile, Blame And Blasphemy is my favourite track on the whole album as it primarily operates as a Psychedelic Doom and Cosmic Stoner Metal track which soon changes into a different Progressive feel which is easily comparable to YOB on the more SONIC dominated parts of the song. Heavy Psychedelic guitars, bombastic vocals and sublime drumming all combine for a song that will leave you breathless at times.
You would think Black Pyramid would stick to that style of music for the rest of the album but they switch moods and atmospherics throughout the album. The record changes from Psych Doom/Stoner Metal to a classic style of Heavy Metal with an Over The Top creative attitude allowing Black Pyramid to play extended progressive and trance based melodies that allows them to become MASTERS OF THEIR OWN DOOMED OUT DOMAIN.
The Crypt On The Borderlands gives the record a more daring and darker turn with the mood becoming ever more DOOM & GLOOM based but with the non-stop epic grooves merging into a Post-Stoner or Prog Rock structure. Little moments of kinetic Psychedelic energy adds various elements that instantly allows you to be part of the overall story.
Black Pyramid continue with their Psychedelic and Heavy Metal conquest with the music being more progressive and even outlandish which suits the overall theme of the story that the band tell throughout tracks such as Astral Suicide, Take Us To The Threshold and the classic three part odyssey that is The Paths Of Time Are Vast Parts I, II and III which could be considered the band’s defining music to date.
The album ends with the majestic and epic track The Quantum Phoenix which cements The Paths Of Time Are Vast as one of the defining “comeback” albums within the Doom/Stoner Metal scene in recent memory right next to SLEEP’s The Sciences and LOWRIDER’s Refractions.
With exquisite and massive sounding production values, The Paths Of Time Are Vast really does have it all and you know this record has all the makings of a modern day classic. And I stand by every word of that statement.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Purple Sage PR for the promo.
The Paths Of Times Are Vast is available to buy now on CD/DD/Vinyl via Totem Cat Records.
Links
Facebook ⎪ Bandcamp ⎪ Instagram ⎪ Spotify
