PYRAMAZE – Immortal

Pyramaze hail from Denmark and have released two albums prior to this one. Their music was best described as almost classic European Power Metal with some nice Progressive Metal finishing touches. Although the albums were very good they did not manage to gain the publicity they deserved.

About one year before, the name Pyramaze could be found in every Metal webzine and magazine since it was connected with Matt Barlow’s return to the music scene. Eventually, Matt was not fully covered by his law enforcement job and decided to get back into singing and Pyramaze was an excellent opportunity. So, with Matt on the vocals Pyramaze entered the studio to work on their third album under the title Immortal.

Well, under the shade of Matt’s return to Iced Earth and the announcement of the new singer Urban Breed, Immortal hit the stores through Locomotive records.

The first thing that one will notice with this album is the rather short time duration; maybe the band wanted to take full advantage of the publicity rise by quickly releasing an album with Matt behind the mic. Actually, this also had an effect on the song arrangement that seem to be more straightforward with less Progressive Metal additions compared to the previous Pyramaze albums.

So, after a short intro, “Year Of The Phoenix” kicks in; Pyramaze always had Iced Earth mentioned as one of their influences and with Matt things become even more evident. The song is powerful with staccato rhythm guitars and a really catchy chorus. Matt has never sounded better, especially in the higher pitches. Pyramaze use the keyboards as a supporting organ rather than a leading one mainly for enhancing the atmosphere and sometimes to underline the melodic lines. “Ghost Light” clocks in at six minutes comprising beautiful melodies and twin guitar harmonies that fit the vocals like a glove. As the album progresses, the music gains on complexity which means moving closer to the first Pyramaze works where this band performs at its best. “Caramon’s Poem” features some excellent melodic guitar riffs that change places with the groovy and heavy rhythm lines. The songs are composed in a way to take the most of Matt’s vocal potential, establishing a strong Power Metal foundation while flirting with the classic Heavy Metal sound with Iron Maiden first on the influences list.

“The Highland” introduces the term Epic in a way that can definitely bring the name Blind Guardian to the listener’s mind. “Shadow Of The Beast” hits hard with cutting edge guitar riffs, strong keyboard melodies that can make some think that maybe Matt could be better with Pyramaze as Iced Earth would with Tim “Ripper” Owens.

The bottom line is that the Danish band added a great album to their back catalogue taking full advantage of Matt’s short term addition to the lineup. The question is what will be their next step and how new fans will react to the new singer since the composing potentials are already there and were proven long before this famous lineup addition.