Those Who Dwell in the Fire

The material that the Italian band Pyra presents on their debut album "Those Who Dwell in the Fire" can be classified as black/death metal with a slight admixture of atmospheric black metal: their music is tough (but not brutal at all) and just sometimes melodic. The intrigue lies in the fact that two years ago Pyra (the band was a one-woman project at that time) released a self-titled EP – a very, very promising release. However, the bottom line is that Pyra went a little the other way.

The "Pyra" EP was perhaps closer in style to atmospheric black metal, but quite unusual atmospheric black metal: the opening "Barren Earth Dug", hmm, the weakest song on that release, just had a bit of a Hate Forest vibe, while the three remaining songs mesmerized with their riffs, piercing on the verge of grotesque, with a slight dissonance sometimes. "In a Thousand Different Voices" and "Abandoned Shrines of Light" balanced on the brink of avant-garde with their musical texture, these were prodigious songs indeed, the last "Eternal" was also good, although not as good as the previous ones.

If only the last two songs on "Those Who Dwell in the Fire" ("Purified in Infinity" and "Funeral Pyre") are close to this level, but they cannot be as abnormally atmospheric as the EP, if only because of the tough, powerful, low-end production, not to mention the riffs that swore allegiance to black/death metal. The black/death metal approach now dominates without a doubt, Pyra now look in on the atmospheric black metal kingdom only occasionally, so to speak, for old times' sake.

The vocals, by the way, also underwent almost the same changes: the not-fully-formed growled vocals were used on the "Pyra" EP, or perhaps even a middle ground of screaming and growling, but now these are full-fledged low-pitched death metal growls.

Of course, "Those Who Dwell in the Fire" contains some unusual passages and weird riffs as well, but where once they were the main dish at meal, now they are just a condiment to it. Or let us put it another way: "Those Who Dwell in the Fire" was obtained by diluting the "Pyra" EP with standard black/death metal moves in a ratio of about one to three. So "Those Who Dwell in the Fire" is an interesting release, but it would be extremely interesting if it was compressed into the size of an EP again.

Lorenza, the band's leader, seemed to sacrifice the queerness/originality of her brainchild for the sake of classic black/death metal production. Maybe she should have kept Pyra as a one-woman project, then we would have gotten a sequel to the "Pyra" EP, who knows. However, since this did not happen, instead of mourning what we lost, let's look at what the change in tactics and strategy led to.

Just like on the "Pyra" EP, the main "building block" of the music on "Those Who Dwell in the Fire" is a tremolo picked riff. However, now a premium is placed not on the guitar riff as such but rather on the interaction of two guitars. The album uses a fairly standard technique for thrash/death/black metal – splitting the guitars across the channels: there is a high-pitched guitar (piercing melodies) in the right channel, while in the left one we have low-end tremolo (a rhythm). The schtick is that Pyra's interaction between the left and right guitars turns out to be very musical and harmonious.

In addition, by contrast with the self-titled EP, sometimes you can hear almost pure death metal movies on "Those Who Dwell in the Fire", anyway they are short – black metal quickly replaces them. For example, in the finale of the very first "Cacus" we hear the pretty rough Morbid Angel-like tremolo picking rhythm guitar in the right channel, and in the first half of "Summit of Existence" we have tremolo picked atmospheric black metal on the right and tough death metal on the left.

Actually the most interesting thing on "Summit of Existence" is the twice-repeated slow abstraction, in which we get the avant-garde picking from the right guitar, while the left one plays a dismal low-end line, also unusual and, most importantly, ideally combined with the picking. This avant-garde passage sounds like a cautious experiment compared to the rest of the song's riffs.

In its turn, the attractiveness of "Palingenesis" is built on hovering long-sounding chords, at first they are emanated by the right guitar, but then the left one takes the initiative, so the right one begins to play alternately tremolo picked riff and fast picking riff. Of course, this song is more interesting than the usual black/death metal piece, but, again, it became like this thanks to the interaction of the guitars: this is an extensive method, whereas before it was intensive one.

The fantasy of this interaction is least manifested in "Becoming", it is the closest to the black/death metal patterns of all the songs. However, an inversion/castling happens here: somewhere in the middle, the right guitar produces the usual black/death metal pressing riff while the left one carries a picking or tremolo melody.

"Purified in Infinity" finally introduces an obvious dissonance so now Pyra sound like their former selves, in addition more modern. After a long almost ambient passage, the song explodes with a fast blast-beat section: we hear the high-pitched traditional tremolo picked atmospheric black metal riff in the right channel, but the low-end tough guitar (in the left one) and low-pitched growls prevent this passage from being full-fledged atmospheric black metal. And finally, "Funeral Pyre" is interesting with its eccentrical slightly dissonant riffs over the righteous blasting rampage. This song comes very close to Pyra's natural atmospheric floridity.

Summary. "Those Who Dwell in the Fire" is a controversial release. If you don't know about the existence of the "Pyra" EP, it can be highly appreciated, but alas, we cannot pretend that this release did not exist.