Black Pyramid – Stormbringer

So I was just doing some online research trying to find out more about Black Pyramid for this review when I learned several things:

1. “Stormbringer” is a compilation of material from earlier singles and EPs not the new release I thought it was.

2. There is a full length self-titled Black Pyramid album from 2009 that I am now currently downloading from iTunes.

3. I am exactly three weeks late discovering these guys as they broke up on September 7th. I consider this a real bummer.

I’m always on the lookout trying to find cool doom metal bands that play in a traditional Sabbath-influenced style and I get real excited when I find one I like. So it’s quite the buzzkill to find Black Pyramid only to have them yanked away again.

“Stormbringer” is classic doom: Fuzzed out tuned down guitars and bass, long slow plodding songs, clean vocals and the album title is taken from classic fantasy fiction (fyi - Stormbringer is the name of the sword of Elric of Melnibone from the Michael Moorcock books.) What’s not to like about all of that?

This album has some Godzilla sized guitar parts. Something about that just evokes so much emotion for me. It may be the first time I’ve heard this music but at the same time it seems familiar. I don’t mean that it sounds like something else, only that the style just immediately connects with me.

Well, what more should I bother saying? The band is over but they left some cool tunes. Catch ya ‘round Black Pyramid, we hardly knew ya.