Pyrexia "Age Of The Wicked"

Tracklist: 01. The Wicked Rise 02. Prey The Weak 03. ITMP 04. Irony 05. Shackles Of The Mind 06. Season Of Anguish 07. Song Of Hate 08. Life Long Hate 09. Ode To Brinn 10. No Apologies Release: 2007 Genre: Death Metal URL: www.pyrexia.us Label: www.uniqueleader.com

Hey, somebody out there remembering the band "Pyrexia"?? If your answer is now "What the hell?? I've never heard about them!!" stop reading now and sing for the next casting tv show you can find. It's really a gap in education, if you don't know this band. Anyway the band was involved to form the NY death metal, like we know it today and is one of oldest figureheads of this death metal style, with bands like Suffocation, Internal Bleeding and Dehumanized. Besides that, the band will always have a place in my personal hall of fame of US style death metal, with albums like "Sermon of Mockery". Of course one of the best albums ever for sure. With "Age Of The Wicked" it's the first sign of life after a long period of time and it continues the same path, like we have heard on the 3 new tracks on their best of compilation "Cruelty Beyond Submission". Yes folks the golden ages of "Sermon Of Mockery" are definitely history, cause in the year 2007 the band goes the same way like the genre fellows Internal Bleeding on the "Onward To Mecca" album. The sound is much more HC influenced than ever before. I don't know what I should think about this kind of development. Well, the new stuff is more technically and much faster than before, but I prefer the old times of the band. A few people will conceive now "ha ha, stupid old school death metal assertor". Not at all, I'm also into tons of new school death bands and I love both styles, but imagine that Suffocation would have Jamey Jasta from Hatebreed as a new singer. Sure the level of aggression would increase, but it wouldn't sound like Suffocation anymore. Anyway I don't hate Hatebreed but in my opinion it's incongruous to have a death metal band with a HC singer. Ok I must confess, that my example was a little bit over-the-top, because the situation isn't that bad and the band is still 100% death metal. The vocals are not that worse after listening to this album a second time. The vocals are fucking aggressive it's the perfect music to pulverize the face of your enemy in a free fight cage match. The speed level on this record is fast as hell and they're blasting, like we know it from bands like hate plow, till the ambulance arrives. Don't panic here because there is also room for groovy parts, but not in overage like on the old stuff. In my opinion "Age Of The Wicked" is the most aggressive and technical advanced full length album of the band but unfortunately not the one with the best songs. Although you can find 10 songs on it, only 7 songs are really new. The other 3 songs aren't new; they're also on their best of compilation. The 3 songs are also the strongest tracks on this record in my opinion. That's really a little bit poor if you consider the long waiting time. In a nutshell, this here is the most aggressive death metal album of the year 2007 and is essential for every fan of new Internal Bleeding, Hate Plow or new Malevolent Creation. But "Sermon Of Mockery" remains as my favorite Pyrexia album of all time but "Age Of The Wicked" was really able to convince myself, even only 30 minutes playtime were a way too short for such a great band. In spite of everything, you can find some great killer tracks, with a great sound production and an awesome cover artwork on this album. Ok, now I will go back into my combat cage, and thrash some ultimate fighters into a coma to the sound of the new Pyrexia.

Rating: 80 % | from Gore | Date: 20.05.07 | Time: 19:20	shut down