a positive review of a technical death metal album

The band Pyrrhon began to drift apart during covid. Then they did something about it.

These songs will make you beg for just one moment of melody—anything to get a little oil into this gear-grinding machine.

But the grind is the theme of "Exhaust," the new album from NYC-based technical death metal band Pyrrhon.

If you feel burned out, Pyrrhon is right there with you. Vocalist Doug Moore says, "It's about the experience of being pushed beyond your ability to sustain things … It's a sense of constantly juggling things and never having a handle on them. That feeling became a big part of this record and the imagery."

"Exhaust" is us in this fucking cyclone of culture. The music channels the onslaught of content, the warping of technologies and time, and our politics of destruction.

The album itself, however, is a product of renewal.

Pyrrhon had just released its fourth album when covid hit. After 10 years of touring and crafting crazy-ass music, spending time apart became normal.

The guys began to worry about their partnership.

So they jump-started their band by gathering in May 2023 at a rural northeastern Pennsylvania cabin and taking mushrooms. Says vocalist Doug Moore: "We hadn't spent that much time together, and it felt like we were able to rediscover who we are and feel the energy of the collaboration."

Thematically the album may be about exhaustion, but the collaboration brought renewal.

Album opener "Not Going to Mars" bombards the wasteland of your attention span. The track is an aggressively chaotic work of rapid-fire snare drumming, dissonant guitar pull-offs, multi-personality vocals, and frequent part changes. It's a shock to the system. So goes the album.

Once I started wrapping my brain around the sound, the drums stood out. I noticed on "First as Tragedy, Then as Farce" how the bass guitar grinds with the drums. The syncopation, the precise, rapid execution and unity of the drums and bass are really something. The music represents a lot of talent and practice.

The album's first steady beat comes on "Strange Pains." Two songs stick out for me, and this is one. I can just imagine how this must hit live.

My other favorite is "Stress Fractures"—a song of sheer wall-climbing madness. The riff spirals up the fretboard as the bass pulls the rug and leaves the vocals gasping. This song exemplifies that "experience of being pushed beyond your ability to sustain things … of constantly juggling things and never having a handle on them."

Pyrrhon brings the creativity and sound of the previous four albums. "Exhaust" might even have a wider palette than 2020's "Abscess Time."

Songs like "Out of Gas" and "Last Gasp" slow the tempo. "Out of Gas" is a concussed brain-bleeder featuring a modulated bass effect, some silly razz-matazz drumming, and a spoken, taunting vocal. Notes ring out on "Last Gasp" and create a scary space that fills with exaggerated spoken vocals that ramble on until overcome by caterwauling guitars.

"Exhaust" suits the moment and a state of mind. Moore says, "We've been through a time of great uncertainty. I tend to get into my head about this stuff."

something about Richard Yates's "A Good School"

A Good School is a coming-of-age story set in a Connecticut prep school in the early 1940s. Students, teachers, and school officials all struggle as World War II looms in the distance.

Richard Yates based the fictional Dorset Academy on a school he attended, Avon Old Farms School, and 15-year-old William Grove is Yates's stand-in. Dorset, like Avon, is not an elite school.

Grove struggles in every class except English. His talent for writing eventually leads to a role as editor-in-chief of the school paper. Through work, he builds confidence and gains purpose. He also earns some respect and makes some complicated but meaningful friendships.

Yates includes personal notes in a foreword and afterword. He writes in the afterword that his time at Avon "taught me the rudiments of my trade." He also mentions his and his father's skepticism of the school and each other:

And is there no further good to be said of the school, or of my time in it? Or of me?

I will probably always ask my father such questions in the privacy of my heart, seeking his love as I failed and failed to seek it when it mattered; but all that—as he used to suggest on being pressed to sing "Danny Boy," taking a backward step, making a little negative wave of the hand, smiling and frowning at the same time—all that is in the past.

Notes:
A Good School was published in 1978.
See my other posts about Yates: something about “Revolutionary Road” by Richard Yates, something about Richard Yates, and something about Richard Yates’s “Liars in Love.”

about a young woman with everything ahead of her

Before her fresh green eyes a whole forest of opportunities burst from the earth and she had only to find her way among them. What is it like to grow up and take so many opportunities for granted?

 

and puts a positive spin on some HC album

Those Left Standing square up with the world on "Almere City Hardcore"

Hardcore punk band Those Left Standing come out from Almere swinging.

The press release for the new album says, "Coming from Almere, they face prejudice and feel like outcasts, but they are resolute in representing the Almere City hardcore reality, embracing their role as outcasts among outcasts."

The place must have some reputation.

Almere is a planned city in the Amsterdam Metropolitan Area. It's not even 50 years old. But the Amsterdam of today began over 850 years ago on a continent where people have been loving and fighting and holding grudges for a few thousand years.

But in 2024, Those Left Standing voice a new grudge in volume and attitude on "Almere City Hardcore."

The album sounds solid as the band switches between hardcore punk and 90s-influenced metal. Super-tight drumming competes with incessant in-your-face-asshole vocals.

So what's the story with Almere? I asked vocalist Dennis Jansen, aka DeeJay, about the city and how these outcasts make new sounds in an old world.
 

D: I enjoyed listening to the new album, "Almere City Hardcore." This is my first exposure to Those Left Standing and Almere. Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.

DeeJay: Thank you for interviewing us, and good to hear that you enjoyed the album—we’re really proud of it!

D: When I listen to the album, I think of NYC hardcore band Biohazard. Who influences Those Left Standing, and what is the band listening to now?

DeeJay: First of all, very cool that you're thinking of Biohazard. I remember getting that orange CD tray version of the "State of the World Address" album for my birthday back in the day. I played it right away 'coz I thought Biohazard was awesome. It still is, by the way. NYC Hardcore like Madball and Biohazard are definitely a major influence on our sound. So that's a real compliment for us right there. Backfire! is an important one as well.

On the question—well, we listen to quite a diverse range of bands and styles.

For me, I gotta confess that my CD collection and playlists contain a lot of 90s, early 00s hip-hop and hardcore.

As for the other guys: our bass player Jeff is really into grindcore like Napalm Death and more extreme metal stuff; drummer G listens to, for example, Kublai Khan TX but also Devin Townsend and more punk-oriented bands; guitar player Laurens has a slightly more metallic background in taste—DevilDriver, Lamb Of God, Gojira—but also hardcore bands like Hatebreed and Terror.

D: Your hardcore sound is traditional. What role does tradition and influence play when you write and record a song?

DeeJay: We don't necessarily think about these things when we're writing our songs. We play hardcore 'coz we love the style, the intensity, the rawness of it. And, yeah, we grew up with and listen to a lot of bands, which I guess tends to rub off on you—ha! But it's not by design. We really just write and play whatever we think sounds awesome enough.

For recording the album, we obviously used modern recording techniques, but everything you hear was played by ourselves. Our first demo we recorded playing live together in different rooms, which was a lot of fun.

But for the album we wanted a more controlled process. So we recorded drums in the studio first with WD (DoubleYouD Productions), then all the guitars and bass at home. Then we did vocals at our friend Dick's (Rausbaum) house; he has a home studio. Finally, we re-amped all the guitars at the studio and let WD work his magic in the mix.

It was a long process, but, to be honest, we're really happy with the sound of the album. Turned out great! So, not really traditional, but still man-made, I would say.

D: A lot of hardcore punk bands express pride in where they're from, like they want to represent it. Those Left Standing sounds like it has a complicated relationship with Almere. Describe Almere and what it means to you. And please describe what it means to title the album after Almere.

DeeJay: Almere is a relatively young city. Which we saw grow from nothing as we grew up here ourselves. A place where people say there is no history or culture yet. But that’s not true. It's here 'coz we are making that history and culture ourselves. But, yeah, there are growing pains you have to endure. And it's not always easy, I'll give you that.

As a band, if we made R&B instead of hardcore, we might be more well known. But that's not what we are about.

And through the years, we’ve had the support of a diehard group here that sticks tight and is proud of Almere and its alternative band scene. As are we. And that’s what we want to show with "Almere City Hardcore."

To our A-town people, but also to the rest of The Netherlands, that we got something going on here! Something we are proud to reprezent.

D: What's important to you politically, socially, or personally?

DeeJay: Personally, wow, I guess that we get out of life what we can. And that is a challenge on its own. Life can be unforgiving, unfair, and overwhelming. You gotta find a way to keep going, find a good place, pick your battles, let yourself be heard, and enjoy the small victories.

Our triumphs, as they—even for that one moment—make it worthwhile.

And for what it's worth, I think that we should start respecting each other more. There is so much division nowadays. As we point out in the song "Split" on the album. And it's all amplified by the sides involved who are just out there yelling crap at each other and rallying anybody they can find for ... for what, really?

Come on people, don't fuck this up.