Album Review: Gargling Rot by Pyramid Mass
There’s plenty of dark, entrancing imagery to extract from the music of experimental metal trio Pyramid Mass. Suffocating pressure that mimics the panicked horror of being buried alive. Being stripped of senses inside a brutal maze, where every distressing turn reveals a path leading deeper into chaos. Becoming ensnared in a merciless, unrelenting trap that leads you to beg not for the grip to loosen, but for the release of death itself. What is less examined, less celebrated in their music are the moments of triumph nestled within the chaos. Not technical triumph, not ambitious triumph; genuine ascendancy, like the calm that follows a gasp of air after nearly drowning, or the surge of clarity as light breaks through the claustrophobic dark after clawing your way out of the grave, hands torn and bloodied, but alive and free.
Moments like these surfaced occasionally on 2023’s Monolith, the band’s previous record with an immense sound that eclipsed even its title. Ominously crushing, like a vision of the future that felt inescapable yet surmountable, there were still moments of weightlessness in their music–where the bottom dropped out and the atmospherics envelop with a sense of bitter comfort, as if to suggest liberation was faintly possible. Album opener “Offerings” presented this in the form of ascent early in its towering runtime, while “Mutiny” offered it as a reprieve from the violence, a fleeting gesture of mercy.
The band’s new record Gargling Rot, out now via Ossein Records, takes this sensation and deepens it, threading it throughout the record to create something that’s not only punishing and cathartic, but also strangely enlightened–esoteric in its structure and profound in execution. On “Abhorrent Passage,” the record’s lead single, this takes shape in a striking bridge… curiously ethereal, like stumbling upon a mirage after enduring a violent sandstorm, a brief lull before the frenzy reclaims control. The song’s title and album artwork echo this sentiment, as if Pyramid Mass’ music charts a cavernous journey: primal, unsettling, and mysterious. Still, it’s capable of revealing moments of stark beauty, like an emerald lagoon hidden in the dark, though even that beauty feels uneasy: touched by decay, akin to the coffin depicted on the album’s cover.
Album opener “Unrest” serves as a fitting prelude to this baneful excursion. Melodic squalls conduct the onslaught, shaping the thudding menace into a sharpening force. Less a barrage, more a dire warning to any who might dare venture further. Caution can only warrant that much heed for true wanderers though, especially when the warning itself is steeped in rich intrigue and allure. “Prestige” proves the warning was justified, erupting in a chaotic diatribe of pummeling rhythms and slashing guitars, like inching your way through a narrow passage that carves at your skin from all angles. Less a death by a thousand cuts, more a slow weakening by relentless abrasions. Feral and persistent, it races through, matching the frantic heartbeat it conjures, until it suddenly splits wide open into an atmospheric reverie, haunting and soothing. Maybe this is the calm release of death, not as a surrender, but as a transference… one final breath exhaled into the void, where torment finally recedes and something almost sacred remains.
“Spectre” pauses the torment, settling into a synth dirge that’s rich in contemporary design yet unmistakably baroque in tone, like a Victorian-age organ retro-fitted for a modern studio. It feels like taking stock of what’s been uncovered within the music: something brutally beautiful, stunning in scope yet potentially lethal. Following immediately after “Abhorrent Passage,” it’s another track that breathes life into both the austere artwork (designed by band member Nick Crider) and unsettling album title: untouched splendor that is tranquil in observation while potent in consumption. In a way, it evokes the recent phenomenon of “zombie viruses,” pathogens long thought extinct that are coming to life again as the permafrost thaws due to climate change. From a distance, the thawing can appear restorative, a return to the natural seasonal cycle of the world in one of the harshest environments in the world. But beneath the surface lies death: silent, virulent, and ruthless.
“Dissolution” feels like the embodiment of this realization–that what seems innocuous can still inflict profound doom on the world, raging against the hapless who enact it in ignorance. This epiphany leads to the album’s heaviest moment, offering little reprieve aside from the fact that its ire feels perfectly justified. Guitars ring out as alarms in the background while vocals roars with scorched wrath, deafening in their attempt to expose every hidden fracture as the ground trembles beneath the thundering rhythms. Grim in every aspect, the track still holds a subtle triumph: a tense, pulsating close that leaves the records on a cagey cliffhanger. A motif first introduced at the end of “Unrest,” it resonates with more menace here through a blend of vibrating strings and mechanical tones that are no longer a warning, but rather a rallying cry delivered as a rhythmic gasp of breath after a hasty evacuation. Utilizing both the digital and organic, it feels prescient in its premonition, a grave reminder that we will need every tool at our disposal to fend off the looming calamity.
That feeling calls back to the daunting scenario of clawing your way back to the surface from a grave—bloodied, disheveled, and gasping for breath—with a nagging thought gnawing at the edges of your mind: “what’s next?” In a sense, that uncertainty is its own kind of triumph. It places the listener on the outskirts of these ghastly occurrences, not entirely consumed by them, but not untouched either. There’s a grim sense of survival in reaching the end, battered but intact, left to contemplate the aftermath and brace for whatever horrors may lie ahead. And there’s no triumph greater than that of survival: in nature, with survival of the fittest; in storytelling, with the monomyth; and in music itself, with enduring dissonance to arrive at resonance.
Triumphant survival is what Joey Anderson, Matt Wild, and Nick Crider have compiled here. It can feel apocalyptic. It can feel liberating. It can feel horrific. It can feel sublime. But at the core it is resilience… pure and simple resilience in the face of crushing encumbrance. It may have evolved from a staggering pillar into a decaying blight, but it has only strengthened in scope, demanding the most from those who brave its journey.
Gargling Rot is out now on all streaming platforms and available for purchase on limited edition cassette via Bandcamp. Pyramid Mass will celebrate the release this Friday at Gallery5, joined by Plaguefever, Eradicant, and Thumpr. Tickets are available here, and you can view the concert flyer below. Stay connected with Pyramid Mass by following them on on social media for more updates and future releases.
