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Review: Pyramaze - Immortal
Pyramaze
www.pyramaze.com
Immortal

Label: Massacre Records
Year released: 2008
Duration: 45:27
Tracks: 10
Genre: Progressive Power Metal

Rating:
2.25/5


Review online: June 21, 2008
Reviewed by: Larry Griffin
Readers' Rating
How do you rate this release?

Rated 4.15/5 (82.94%) (34 Votes)
Review

I don't get Pyramaze. There isn't, or rather, shouldn't be, much wrong with them now that Lance King, he of the nasally whine, is gone, and they have all the elements of a competent Power/Prog outfit - riffs, time changes, segues between heavy and softer parts, keyboards in the background, etc etc etc - but I don't like them. Something about their blend of heavy riffs and melodic keyboards has never clicked with me, always coming off as somewhat awkward and disjointed. They have Matt Barlow's deep, charismatic pipes behind the mic now, and that should be a huge plus, but sadly, Immortal just isn't good at all.

The biggest thing that I can pinpoint as being really wrong with this band as a whole, which I finally realized after my negative review of their last album, is that they're just boring and unambitious. It's as if the elements of a metal album were transferred onto a piece of white scrap paper with GROCERY LIST at the top of it, and Pyramaze scrolled down the list and checked off every one, making damn sure they had all of it down pat before writing this album. This is so bland and vanilla and generic that the best thing one can say about it is that it is a metal album, and that isn't a good sign at all.

However, it isn't like the music on here redeems that fact anyway - Immortal has no real bad songs, but it does have a whole collection of tracks that plod on for four or five minutes in a monotonous groove without hooks or any real form of speed or anything that would make the music otherwise exciting. How is it even possible to make Heavy Metal like this? The riffs are boring and repetitive. There's no attitude here, either, and that is the real crime here. What happened to the days when metal was all about attitude, when bands lived by the riff and belted their heart out on every fucking note? Why is this band so afraid to speed up and bellow and really kick your ass? I'll never know, but I think I'm just about done with this lame, lame band for good.

More about Pyramaze...
Review: Bloodlines (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Contingent (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Disciples of the Sun (reviewed by Bruno Medeiros)
Review: Disciples of the Sun (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Epitaph (reviewed by MetalMike)
Review: Immortal (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Legend of the Bone Carver (reviewed by Christopher Foley)
Review: Legend of the Bone Carver (reviewed by Sargon the Terrible)
Review: Melancholy Beast (reviewed by Joseph Allen)
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