Pyramaze

Jonah Weingarten - Keyboards, Orchestration: Jacob Hansen - Guitars, Bass, Vocals (Backing): Terje Harøy - Vocals: Toke Skjønnemand - Guitars: Morten Gade Sørensen - Drums:
Sometimes a band will reinvent themselves out of boredom, at others out of a sheer sense of necessity or inevitability, and one of the latter two scenarios is where Pyramaze has fallen with their long awaited follow up to their brief studio stint with Iced Earth's Matt Barlwo in Immortal. Many would have been justified in writing the band off following the extended period of studio silence following some touring with Urban Breed standing in for Barlow, who had decided to give Iced Earth one more go and managed one of the worst outings by said band in the process, for come 2011 the band lost their guitarist and band leader Michael Kammeyer, also chief songwriter and the most responsible for Pyramaze's signature sound. Combined with the additional loss of their long time bassist and a continuing lack of a permanent replacement for original front man Lance King, seven years of studio silence becomes quite excusable, as a full out retirement of this band seemed in the cards. Be all this as it may, the tide has been successfully turned with the release of their fourth LP Disciples Of The Sun, and with it is a band that still somewhat resembles their former self, but comes off quite a bit differently.
Given the absence of Kammeyer, Pyramaze obviously had the choice of trying to copy his signature songwriting and riffing style or forging a different path, and they clearly opted for the latter. In the process, they've managed to maintain the generally progressive flavor that was always present going back to Melancholy Beast, but the formula has definitely tilted away from their somewhat power/thrashing demeanor to something a bit closer to the recent power/progressive metal meets AOR character of acts such as Masterplan and, to an extent, Jorn Lande's solo work. Part of this can be attributed to the recruitment of the relatively unknown vocalist Terje Harøy, who clearly comes from more of a hard rock background and has a similar David Coverdale inspired attitude and swagger to that exhibited by Jorn and Björn Jansson of Beyond Twilight. But even when discounting the heavy difference in vocal style, there is a generally denser, groovier, and somewhat heavier character to these songs that is heavily reminiscent of where Masterplan ended up on MK II, save with greater emphasis on keyboard atmosphere and an even greater emphasis on chunky, down-tuned guitar riffing that actually resembles Communic during their earlier albums.
While a very different band when it comes to their overall sound, Pyramaze actually manages to create something near equally worthy to their name as their seminal works with Lance King. Things start off on a surprisingly cinematic note with the opening instrumental "We Are The Ocean", which literally sounds like it could have been written as an alternative closing theme to Hans Zimmer's score for the 2010 film "Inception". Following the Hollywood-like prelude, what occurs is something that is generally hard hitting in character, but also fairly concise and easy to digest. Some of the highlights include the super catchy melodic masterpiece "Back For More", the fairly fast and busy "Fearless" and the chunky mid-paced war anthem "The Battle of Paridas", each one loaded up with familiar atmospheric detailing and noodling from the keyboards as heard on previous Pyramaze albums, but mostly emphasizing a sense of driving motion through the guitars and drums. A couple other interesting occurrences on here is the bluesy, down-tempo number "Perfectly Imperfect" (love those intentionally paradoxical song titles) and the church organ meets speedy chugging monster "Hope Springs Eternal".
It may be possible for someone to completely hate this album based on the switch in vocalists and the somewhat different direction of the songwriting, but it's probably not too likely that most who took to this band's former incarnations will be disappointed with the musical results of Disciples Of The Sun. It's a different yet faithful restatement of that particularly progressive tinged niche that has generally defined bands that have come in and out of Lance King's Nightmare Records over the years, proving the classic cliche that the apple rarely falls far from the tree. The orchestrations are still expressive yet a bit more nuanced than the usual fair of the likes of Epica, the guitar and keyboard solos are moderately technical yet more built upon a singing sense of expression rather than overt showboating. In short, this is an album that is well tempered and somewhat moderated between a number of extremes. Chalk it up as yet another solid release from a number of 2000s power metal mainstays over the course of the past month.