Pyre – Where Obscurity Sways

Pyre – Where Obscurity Sways
Release Date:
31st January 2025
Label: Osmose Productions 
Bandcamp
Genre: Old School Death Metal, Death Metal, Swedeath, Death Doom.
FFO: Asphyx, Morbis Angel, Entombed, Obituary, Death, Pestilence, Autopsy.
Review By: Rick Farley

“After four long years of silence and absence in the fog of the pandemic and war, like a heavy sledgehammer rushing towards your head, Russia’s Pyre return with their third full length murderous opus, Where Obscurity Sways.” 

Formed in St Petersburg, Russia in early May 2011, death metal titans Pyre have upped their death dealing game with their newest slab of old school death metal influenced devastation. Having released their debut album Human Hecatomb in 2015 and their second full length Chained to Ossuaries in 2020, Pyre is already well versed on a caustic raw sounding attack that steamrolls its way through with chainsaw, bulldozing riffs, and chaotic drums. Rest assured, Where Obscurity Sways is more of the same. A lethal mix of Swedeath, Florida death metal and lots of fucking bone-shaking swagger awaken this colossal beast for what’s surely going to be a headbanging wreck fest. 

Musically, Where Obscurity Sways has everything a death fan could want, murky toned guitars that sound like serrated knives constantly grinding on metal, no quite full chainsaw mode but close. Grating, mid paced stomping, high tempo thrashing and at times doomy, the riffs hit brutally hard and fast. The leads are high treble melodicism that becomes reckless on occasion, giving the tracks extra ferocity. Shoutout to the solo on Writhing Souls, It’s fucking incredible. The low-end feels weighty, adding heft to the already brutish nature of the songs. The bass doesn’t stick out completely, but you can certainly feel it. The booming drums range from furious downbeats to spastic double bass. The chaos created by the percussion within the basic song structures is borderline frenzied. There’s a huge amount of energetic intensity throughout that feels organic.

Vocally, it’s a John Tardy-esq growling cadence, that’s almost puked out with the occasional Chuck Shuldiner snarl mixed in. They do throw in some killer low grind style gutturals on From the Stygian Depths for good measure, which adds more variety. Everything is well-balanced, and the songwriting is on point. Albeit it’s not far off from the previous albums, there’s a colder sound which does permeate the soundscape. This is what would be the one real criticism I have, is that this record doesn’t depart from their sound very much at all, which is also the sound of quite a few other bands as well. That’s not meant to be a knock on the band, it’s just oversaturation can cause fatigue regardless of how good a band is or how well they execute a record. 

It’s funny how old school death metal has become its very own genre when describing certain bands and their newest albums, in this case it absolutely is OSDM. A bruising combination of several great legendary bands that influence Pyre’s crushing take on death metal that it’s worth mentioning a few times. New and old death metal fans should give this a proper listen. There is enough modern production utilized in a way that Where Obscurity Sways is still gritty, punishing, and raw. Pyre is not going to win any awards for innovation, and this album could be criticized for some run-of-the-mill riff ideas and structures. Sort of a been there done that kind of thing. Nonetheless, this is still a solid, enjoyable fucking pure death metal beating that I’ll gladly take again. Give this a spin.

3.5 out of 5 stars (3.5 / 5)

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