Band:	Pyre
Album:	Chained To Ossuaries
Style:	Death metal
Release date:	April 2020

01. Exordium
02. Impaler The Redeemer
03. Wreath Of Crucifix
04. Across The Shores Of Emerald Fractals
05. Ornaments Of Bones
06. Chained To Ossuaries
07. Crown Of Death
08. Disgraced And Dethroned
09. Antae To The Nothingness
10. Death's Dawn Call

2014 was a simpler time. I was in my home city, with my friends who were really into death metal, drinking beer from plastic bottles in the public park, and generally being obnoxious pricks. One of our favorites was Pyre's Human Hecatomb. Six years later, we have jobs and our backs' hurt. Pyre is only now coming out with a second album.

Now you know why Pyre has a sort of sentimental value for me, along with the likes of Smothered and Necrowretch. Now they're signed to Memento Mori, and they got the released in a batch of more or less equally great stuff like Kurnugia and Funeralopolis. So if you like any of them, you'll likely like the others, and honestly most of what I'll say could more or less be said about any of these. Just so you know where to place your expectations. This isn't experimental, mind-blowing, genre-bending or any of the sorts. This knows exactly what it is and it does what it knows best: old school death metal of the Swedish variety, this time from a Russian band.

Now that we established the exact framework that Pyre work in, let's talk about specifics. As I said, it isn't mind-blowing, but they are very good at what they do. The buzzsaw riffs, the raspy growls, and the bare boned drumming are all on par with what one would expect from an OSDM album, sounding pretty putrid and bludgeoning. But one thing I noticed about this album compared to its debut is their newfound appreciation for slower tempos. It's like they decided to borrow from some Asphyx as well, which does bring just a tad of doom into the mix. The title track is the one song where this is felt most strongly, and also where the pace slows down the most.

It seems like Pyre were in luck after the departure of their drummer, since their bassist and lead vocalist, Dym Nox, is also a drummer, and has played drums in a few other bands as well, so my fears that the lack of an actual drummer would be felt were wiped away pretty quickly. So not only is Dym Nox responsible for the vomit-like "bleghs" on the record, but also for the fairly audible bass and the drumming. Sadly I can't say that there's too much about either or those and nor about the guitars that ever felt like more than "this is entirely decent and they're good at what they do". The growls and the riffs are good, and I really appreciate their ability to expand their sound a bit, but I really didn't find anything I'd be that eager too return to.

It's a bit of a bummer that I don't really appreciate this as much as I used to, maybe I'm hypocritical that I expect more from this sound, but I'm okay with less effort in other genres, but no matter how many times I give it a re-listen, I can count on my fingers the number of times I was properly engaged. Nostalgia can only take me so far.