By: Josh McIntyre
Album Type: Full Length
Date Released: 26/06/2020
Label: Willowtip Records
“Abscess Time” CD//DD//LP track listing:
1. Abscess Time
2. Down At Liberty
Ashes
3. Teuchnikskreis
4. The Lean Years
5. Another Day In Paradise
6. The Cost Of Living
7. Overwinding
8. Human Capital
9. Cornered Animal
10. Solastalgia
11. State Of Nature
12. Rat King Lifecycle
The Review:
Pyrrhon is a weird band. They’re one of several New York
City based metal bands that are pushing the boundaries of heavy music in
exciting and refreshing ways, a continuation of the city’s “downtown music”
history that has shaped experimental music since at least the 60s. New York’s long
passion for making strange and challenging music flows through the veins of John Zorn as it does Sonic Youth
and, for today’s metal, bands like Krallice, Liturgy, Imperial Triumphant, and Pyrrhon just to name a handful.
This might be my favorite Pyrrhon
album thus far. It feels incredibly focused for having such a messy sound. More
often than not the bass, drums, and guitars all dance around each other yet
they line up perfectly when the moment strikes, as if they are simply following
different paths to the same end. Sometimes it feels like weirdo tech death
theatre and the instruments are actors. They talk over each other, they change
tone, and they react to one another. Doug, who deserves more credit for being
an impeccable vocalist, feels like a narrator to this avant garde play who
himself is reactive. His range is incredible, including the deepest growls,
very high screeches, shouts, and spoken word sometimes filtered through
effects.
The songs are all over the place. They
range from a minute long to nearly nine minutes, from being claustrophobic at
exhausting speed to miserable and winding at a creep. Even at its most intense,
Pyrrhon’s
music comes off as moody. They don’t play anything for its own sake, everything
has a purpose even if it’s just to pick at your brain. Lyrics here are just as
purposeful, conveying the general moods that the pitfalls of the economic and
social system that lay bare onto us. Laborers as machines, alienated from their
natural states and desires as they struggle under ever increasing living costs,
and are deemed animals when they decide not to comply. Pyrrhon not only push forward as
metal musicians and artists but they push as human beings expressing distaste
for contemporary social structures.
“Abscess Time” sounds like feeding the
weirdest parts of Gorguts into an Albert Ayler machine and seeing what comes out. Sometimes bits of
noise, ambience, and hardcore are thrown in as seasoning. There are plenty of
‘normal’ moments (tech death normal anyway) with riffs and some parts even
sound like Deadguy.
Still, these parts are laid out in an atonal swarm that rips the senses inside
and out. This album is a prime example of a metal band challenging itself and
the genre. The diversity makes every second of the album worth it, too. Every
idea has merit to it, riffs have interest to them, and the longer songs evolve
throughout quite organically.
On a personal level, listening and enjoying
this record is a mixed bag of emotions. I was supposed to see and play with Pyrrhon
in Philadelphia
before COVID-19 hit. They’ve long been a band that I’ve admired and wanted to
catch at a show. Both beyond and including the pandemic, the socio-economic
status of the world and especially the United States, my home, is
uncertain. The naked gears of a horrid political machine are apparent. Pyrrhon
is one of several voices that shriek at the status quo, whether it be musically
or socially. Somehow that gives me a little bit of hope.
“Abscess Time” is available HERE
