THE FUNERAL PYRE – Vultures at Dawn CD

THE FUNERAL PYRE – Vultures at Dawn CD
Prosthetic Records

Black Metal from California that doesn’t sound like bandwagon jumping crap nor do they have a girl in the band for eye candy purposes and no keyboards. Those of you who’ve been following my reviews through the years (and frankly who hasn’t?) knows my disgust when it comes to bands trying to play Black Metal from California. My basic complaints which I’ve just mentioned find their way in almost all my reviews of bands from there. THE FUNERAL PYRE is quite the exception but maybe that’s because they’ve been toiling away at their craft for more than a few years. This is my first release of there’s although they’ve got three other full lengths under their career belt along with two EPs and two splits. They’re busy little blackened bastards. As far as sound and style Vultures at Dawn has this Swedish Black metal feel because there’s a heavy Thrash sound to the riffs coupled with blastbeats that are, dare I say, panzer division driven. What THE FUNERAL PYRE do on here is nothing new but it’s a breath of freshness from a scene in dyer need of it. I’ll admit when it comes to BM the US has some great bands but not enough to stand boot to boot with their European counterparts. After listening to this full length I’m here to tell ya THE FUNERAL PYRE are one that can.

After the obligatory scary sounding opening at the beginning of “Vultures” things get going which to this jaded hatemonger had me thinking thank you. Overall this release runs the gambit of blackened excess and subtleties. “Monolith” falls into the latter with its doom layered aesthetics were as “Blistering Hands” feels like a cold hand grabbing your face and shaking it wildly. Those are just a few highlights but “Destroying Gods” and “To Watch the Earth Rot” are songs which will stick in your head. Both of those cuts are opposite sides of the same blackened coin but represent something to which I call enthralling. The more I listen to Vultures at Dawn I find myself realizing that here is an American BM band that, despite obvious influences, actually represents USBM. There’s no faux I wanna be Scandinavian bullshit going on here or raw superficial hate. The listening experience will make you forget all of the post BM hype of late which avant garde lovers would like you to believe. Look nothing against that area of the scene but if you wanna hear a US band that plays BM like the latter days of the second wave then here you go.

www.prostheticrecords.com