The Funeral Pyre reviewed
The Funeral Pyre
Wounds
(Prosthetic)
Death metal must have fallen out of favor in Southern California since 2001, when The Funeral Pyre formed. Or at least that’s an easily drawn conclusion after listening to Wounds, where the group make a full-fledged switch to black metal.
It’s hard to tell if Pyre, formerly Envilent, did it as a result of being bored with melodic death metal, or if they just saw this as an opportune time, with Nachtmystium and Leviathan smeared across the pages of every major metal — plenty of non-metal, too — magazine, to give this whole American Black Metal thing a try. On one hand, the group’s transformation looks pretty drastic considering they completely dumped the keyboards of prior efforts like last year’s The Nature Of Betrayal in favor of a second guitarist, but on the other, it isn’t as if Funeral Pyre hadn’t toyed with this sound all along, anyway. Frontman John Strachan’s was always more of a raspy hisser than a guttural barker, and whiplash drumming has always been one of their calling cards as well. That said, songs like “These Ties That Bind” or “When The Light Ends” aren’t that much of a departure.
Some “fans” will undoubtedly disagree. But credit Funeral Pyre and their label for not beating around the bush: Prosthetic’s press notes for Wounds come right out with it and admit Funeral Pyre ditched “much of the melodic death metal influence” in favor of a “more black metal-inspired convention.” Call them bandwagon jumpers if you’d like, but at least they’re honest ones.
— Trevor Fisher
