Pyramido ‘Saga’ CD/LP 2013

Pyramido 'Saga'So this is the third full length album from Swedish Malmö based Pyramido and this time they’ve decided to write the lyrics in their mother tongue. As it is also my own first language I can with a hundred percent certainty say that there are no happy or positive subjects that are screamed out in agony that’s for sure. Even if the vocals are of the screaming kind, it doesn’t get generic as many other bands get with such vocals, but Pyramido catches all the feelings that may be screamed out perfectly.

Don’t be fooled by the cover of the album with a green forest and such, there is no fluffy green forests in this music even though it’s also very melodic at times and each song, even if they’re only five to approximately seven minutes long, contains so many different tempo changes and riffs changing from being down tuned to the max and then shift to a slightly higher tune and then change again. Needless to say it’s an ever changing dark journey filled with abysmal pit stops along the way. You are never bored listening to ‘Saga’.

Sludgy down tuned doom of the angry possessed kind is what you’re treated to and what a treat. The lyrics are often about life and how much it sucks. Like the second song ‘År Av Onåd’ bluntly translated as ‘Years Of Disgrace’ and I must admit it’s not always easy to hear what is screamed out in a sort of hardcore crust kind of manner even though I speak the language, but I’m able to catch a phrase here and there and in the second track, which also is my personal favorite on this album, the words ‘fruktansvärda plåga‘ is mentioned which means something along the lines of ‘awful torment‘.

It’s not just the lyrics and the way they’re uttered, there’s also a slight hint of hardcore in the music itself. It’s hard to put your finger on, but the way the songs are written and presented has a hardcore/crust vibe to it, just slow and sludgelike instead of chaotic and fast. Also the lyric theme reminds me of old songs by Swedish crust band Skitsystem. Angst-ridden, angry and depressive.

Track number four is an instrumental track by Swedish musician Mattias Oskarsson who mainly makes music under the name Monorail. It’s a weird spaced out little track amongst the others with organs, drums, guitars and effects. It’s quite extraordinary how Pyramido have built their own sound like this without it being too much, which can easily happen when you have so much going on in the music, but as I said earlier, there’s not a dull moment and I get thrown from the sludgiest swamps to the heaviness of traditional doom and further to depressive darkness and then when you think you can’t be thrown any further, you get hurled into a moshpit in slow motion of punk/hardcore/crust.

After being signed by Totalrust Music and releasing their first two fullengths ‘Sand’ in 2009 and ‘Salt’ in 2011 Pyramido release their latest on several labels in Europe. The CD version is released by Heart & Crossbones / Ecocentric and the vinyl by La Familia / Farewell Records. Between the three full lengths they have managed to fit in a bunch of split albums together with bands such as Suma, Amarok and Union Of Sleep.

These swedes are also quite active when it comes to playing live and some of you might have caaught them in Copenhagen in 2012 when they were a part of Heavy Days in Doomtown. If not you should try and see them next time they might cross your path. There’s also two videos made for two of the songs from “Saga” on YouTube which are interesting and different productions of art in motion.

Label: Heart & Crossbone Records (CD) | Ecocentric Records (CD) | La Familia Records (LP) | Farewell Records (LP)
Band Links: Official | Facebook | Bandcamp

Scribed by: Johannes van der Meer