Black Pyramid
Black Pyramid II
Meteorcity

Although it’s been kicking around for awhile now, Black Pyramid’s second full-length isn’t slated for an official release until the end of January, but I didn’t even think there was going to be a II given some of the band’s cryptic postings about their demise. Truth be told, I thought they were done, and I still don’t know what the real story is, but lo and behold the band lives, and it just turns out that singer/guitarist Andy Beresky is out, having been replaced by Darryl Shepard of Milligram, Hackman, and Blackwolfgoat fame. However, II‘s hollow steamroller is driven by the original line-up, so consider this your final chance to hear Beresky lead Black Pyramid’s doom machine right into the Earth’s crust and dust. Which is exactly what he does, as Black Pyramid’s signature, banner-flying, fuzzy charge storms the gates of Hades heads down and helmets first. Black Pyramid have always found a home in the fire, and II is certainly no exception; in fact, they appropriate it so damn well that they’ve grown confident enough to spread their blazing wings and fly uncommon patterns, especially on the folksy “Tanelorn” and the album’s two epics, “Dreams of the Dead” and “Into the Dawn.” While “Endless Agony,” “Mercy’s Bane,” “Night Queen,” “Sons of Chaos,” and “The Hidden Kingdom” deliver the familiar Sleep-on-speed thunder we’ve come to expect from Black Pyramid, the band does add a bunch of energized riffs, nasty solos, and tempered breakdowns into the mix, making this effort ambitious and quite successful. There sure is a shit ton of heavy coming out of Massachusetts these days, and only time will tell if Black Pyramid will continue to play a giant part in that with Shepard at the helm (there’s no reason to think they won’t). And what of Beresky? He’s too good to stay down for long, you can count on that.

Listen to “Mercy’s Bane” from Black Pyramid II!

The Devil’s Blood
The Thousandfold Epicentre
Ván Records/Metal Blade Records

The Time of No Time Evermore, The Devil’s Blood’s 2009 debut full-length, was — ahem — bloody brilliant, one which led me to discover a whole rash of occult rock acts currently burning up black candles on foggy stages all over the world. The Eindhoven band’s ritualistic spin on the classic metal of the 70s was nothing short of spellbinding, and it has been under that spell that many have waited, like patient subjects, for the enchanting follow-up. Indeed, The Thousandfold Epicentre can best be described as enchanting, a more ethereal and mystical offering than its predecessor. With its eleven songs borne of psychedelic desire, and five of those stretching themselves like witchy fingers beyond the seven minute mark, it is a bolder and more indulgent record that leans heavily on epic orchestration as though it were an ash-stained pulpit from which the band is delivering their Satanic sermon. However, it’s stand-outs like “Cruel Lover,” “She,” and “Fire Burning” that employ the galloping, Thin Lizzy-like attack that made their debut so great, and without those, this album most surely would have gotten lost within itself.

Listen to “Fire Burning” from The Thousandfold Epicentre!

C’mon
The Mountain
Yeah Right! Records

The Mountain, the new four-song 10″ from C’mon, Canada’s premiere bleary-eyed bastards of fuzz, kicks off with the longest, most ambitious song the band has ever laid down. Until now, the seven-minute track “Fortress of the Night” from 2010′s Beyond the Pale Horse held that distinction, but this here title track, which commands all of side A, clocks in just shy of 12 minutes, and reaches an epic and dangerous precipice the band had only previously admired from afar. C’mon has built an outstanding reputation as a band that can move a mountain by sheer rawk force alone, but this time they do us one better and scale the entire fucking thing in a burnt-out van, blowing dirty exhaust the entire way, planting their tattered flag at the top when they land. What they unleash on the world below is a spacey rumble of arena bravado and prog-crunch, a steady build-up of monolithic metal like a giant analog amp rising up from behind the fires of the sun. Musically, “The Mountain” is more dense and layered than anything C’mon has done in the past* and that kind of studio presence/trickery continues as the band bounds on down the back side in its usual muddy-riffed fashion, turning thrusters on high and heavy with “It’s Alright,” the wonky instrumental “The Grunge,” and a cover of The Osmonds’ “Crazy Horses,” a pretty weird beard song to begin with that is given a special kind of supercharged Blurtonian treatment here. Okay, I know you’re waiting for me to say it, so here it is: C’mon does it again.

*Singer/guitarist Ian Blurton has said in an interview that at one point in the song there are two versions of the band playing against each other, so two drum kits, two basses, and about 25 guitars, which he called a tribute to Voivod’s Piggy and Thin Lizzy’s Gary Moore.

Listen to “The Grudge” from The Mountain!