Review by Nekrist on April 25, 2024.

Mizmor is a storm of extreme metal that made me reconsider the musical styles that I really like. In the past I never had direct contact with the music known by the term “drone metal”, the only point of reference I had for this style was the already well-known band “Sunn 0)))”. This album that bears the title of Yodh simply left me speechless, in the following lines I am going to try to condense and convey the feelings and sensations that this album managed to convey to me as best I can, since I must let out the ecstasy that I experienced encouraging others to listen and live the experience.

The atmosphere of the album is massive, oppressive, depressive, dissonant, crushing and desolate, it is like waking up on a planet or world that completely escapes any rational use of the perception of reality as we know it. In that world, we only see sinister monoliths like the ones we can see on the cover, made by the famous Polish painter Zdzisław Beksiński. If his work had a soundtrack, Mizmor would be the most suitable entity for that purpose. As we walk through the shadowy and sonic lands of Yodh, we hear a work in voices that chill the blood, it sounds like a specter screaming in despair and lament through those gray and perverse depressive and crushing lunar landscapes, that perhaps Lovecraftian entity is terrifying, we cannot see it or understand the meaning of those gloomy remains, but we understand only one thing: whatever that being is, it is not happy at all.

Musically, it is an album full of spaced and minimalist nuances combined with some attacks typical of black metal, slow and creeping riffs with a decadent and pessimistic feeling, which reflect an overwhelming nihilism, the drums are precise and fulminating as needed by the different layers and nuances. that each song has. It is a suffocating and claustrophobic album at times, the atmospheric heaviness is overwhelming, dragging us into a miserable and apathetic world. The voices weave apocalyptic and frantic phrases, like sobs of deep and unbearable pain. Few albums of metal and extreme music in general have been able to transmit such a sentimental feeling in me, and even more so considering that the artist wanted to transmit an absolute emptiness, a feeling of supreme existential crisis after being disappointed and abandoned by the Christian faith ( “Mizmor” translates as “psalm” in Hebrew). This nuance adds an enigmatic touch to this work as a whole.

Words are not enough, although I hope that with this review I have been able to get someone else to listen to this album, sometimes we have to leave our comfort zone to discover amazing things that we would never have known, locked in our ignorance, a titanic work of extreme music.

Rating: 10 out of 10

Review by Alex on May 13, 2020.

Often thought of as an exotic area for metal (by me at least), though continually growing, the region's metal bands have thrived mostly in obscurity than under the brightly lit surroundings of popularity. With that obscurity, comes a quality that is often taken for granted in metal via accessibility. Pyre instead walks a tightrope between cleanly produced death metal and retro genuinety. After hearing Chained to Ossuaries, the primary takeback is that of satisfaction being a result of the band's amicable incorporation of quality, accessibility (put lightly) and sincerity into their labor.

It was only a few years back that I had the fortune of discovering some exceptional acts from the region (one of which is still active) that blew down the fortifications of underground death metal and the other (Scald, R.I.P Максим Андрианов) though no longer active, released the best epic doom metal album I have ever heard. To add to the list of cherished finds is Pyre's Chained to Ossuaries, that even while being influenced by Swedish and American death metal, has a charm that overshadows the obvious derivatives.

Following the brief intro, 'Exordium', 'Impaler the Redeemer' arrives with most of the etiquette you'd expect to hear from a death metal album borrowing from Swedish and American traditions; buzzing HM2 effects, a type of thrashing marked by Possessed and a groovy grip tightly applied to the music. The track is more a throwback to 1992-1996 which I don't think anyone would have a problem with, at least if you like good death metal. However, I think it’s 'Wreath of Crucifix' and 'Across the Shores of Emerald Fractals' that Pyre starts to really cook and fall into their zone. Though one is faster than the other, they both appear to have some connectivity, an undisturbed effusion linking them together, such that the music does not sound like just a collection of songs.

The writing improves as the album progresses with entries like 'Ornaments of Bones' and 'Chained to Ossuaries', sporting greater dynamics by merging Asphyx-esque doom metal sections with rivaling thrash metal guitar solos. It's almost as if with each track that passes, you'd have no choice but to select a new favorite, the songs are that good without incorporating too much experimentation or unorthodox features, hence 'Antae to the Nothingness' with its slight progressive/psychedelic/stoner rock demeanor toward the end.

That "charm" referenced earlier is that of Pyre's musical assembly, that'd meet its peak on the album down the order with 'Crown of Death' and aforementioned 'Antae to Nothingness' catapulting the Russian trio's compositions by enforcing less predictability when moving about mid paced, thrashing and doom metal parts. In addition, there is a noticeable trade of compliments and challenges occurring between drum and guitar on most songs that gives the album a spirit of competition.

In conclusion, you could rearrange the songs in any order, and you would get the same pleasure if not more on Chained to Ossuaries. And like many albums that'd have one side dominating the other, this feels like one long A-side as all the songs are so strong. Chained to Ossuaries is proof of Pyre's respect to the spirit of death metal.

Rating: 9 out of 10