Review by Jeger on December 4, 2024.

Sometimes "holy shit" is the only way to describe the feeling. Pyre have returned four years departed from the plague days of yesteryear, and they're offering death metal of catastrophic magnitude - the third LP installment in their thus far highly reviewed discography. A Stygian chapter of transcendental rites to invoke Horsemen of ritual-summoned apocalypse - crimson skies above - pestilential winds below and sweeping o'er the sanctity of life on Earth. And it's all soundtracked to the sound of brutal riff-dominated DM done the Russian way. On January 31, 2025, Pyre will defile us all with Where Obscurity Sways via Osmose Productions.

With influences ranging from modern day Asphyx to old-school Morbid Angel, Death and Entombed, expect nothing less than the quintessential death metal experience: none too technical, steamrolling and utterly rapturous. Think OSDM; back before death metal bands got all uppity and the stench of putrefaction radiated through the atmosphere of the scene as opposed to all this uber-technical masturbation. Death metal crafted with meaning, with class and with integrity at the fore. Ah, just fucking right… Within this opus, you'll discover mid-tempo'd melodic bangers like the opening titular track, bass-heavy bruisers like 'Murderous Transcendence' and skin-blistering scorchers like 'Chanting Ancient Incantations' - a variety of damage dealt, but ever-sweet as you suffer in ecstasy to the sound of extinction-level prognosticative death metal of epic proportions. Take it all in as you would the experience of torturing your worst enemy. Savor each second of the kill: watch the skin split under the blade and let the blood course through your fingers as you revel in your own bloodlust.

Did I mention Asphyx? Because you get plenty of that action here. You'll be tack hammered by the same doom-hearty riffs and tortured vocals as our beloved Netherlands Neanderthals. The stuff of nightmares and of death done the brutal way. A masterpiece? Shit, man, it ain't too far off. It's got all the major ingredients. It feels as if this long-time-coming record is the product of a band that is in their prime, in the fucking zone and operating at lethal capacity. The apex of their career - "Death's "Human", Obituary's "Cause of Death" and Carcass's "Necroticism" - type superiority.

This is why I adore European death metal. Bands like Pyre are champions of the true way, and so long as bands like Lik (Sweden), Shaarimoth (Norway), Soulskinner (Greece) and our boys here continue down this path, there will be hope for a dignified future for death metal. Unfortunately, the scene here in The States has become polluted by the excrement of its own legends - shells of what they used to be - succumbed to the travesty of AI cover art, sanitized production, soulless concepts and just cashing in. Pyre are pure, untainted and dealing out the death in spades, just the way it should be! Can you feel it? Like slipping into a warm and cozy bloodbath; the blood of your aforementioned worst enemy. Soaking it into your pores, all the while as cataclysm reigns just outside your door. The end is nigh! Don't miss this one…

Rating: 9.5 out of 10