Late this past June, Pyramaze released its latest album, Bloodlines to the masses, ending a three-year wait for new music from the veteran metal outfit. The band’s seventh album, it proves itself worth hearing at least once. That is due in part to its featured musical arrangements, which will be discussed shortly. The lyrical themes that accompany the album’s musical arrangements make for their own interest and add to the record’s engagement and entertainment. They will be addressed a little later. The record’s production rounds out its most important elements and will also be examined later. Each item noted here is important in its own way to the whole of its presentation. All things considered they make Bloodlines another interesting offering from Pyramaze.
Bloodlines, the latest album from Pyramaze, is a positive new offering from the veteran metal band that proves itself worth hearing at least once. The record’s overall success comes in part through its musical arrangements. For the most part the arrangements featured here are very similar in sound and style to works that In Flames produced for its 2002 album, Reroute to Remain. For those who might be less familiar with In Flames, the band’s sound and style on that record turned from the more familiar extreme metal approach for which the band had come to be known to something more melodic yet still heavy in its own right. It was a notable change for the band. While most of the music featured in Pyramaze’s new album is very similar to that of In Flames’ work from said album, the record’s two instrumental tracks – its opener, ‘Bloodlines’ and finale, ‘Wolves of the Sea’ – are the only tracks that really hold the band’s power metal identity. Interestingly, ‘Wolves of the Sea’ immediately conjures thoughts of the U-Boat “wolfpacks” that prowled the Atlantic Ocean during World War II. One has to assume the song in that case mirrored the pain and tension that so many seamen felt as they made the Atlantic crossing to get to Britain during the war. Getting back on track, the change of sound and style for Pyramaze on its latest album is nothing new for the band. Throughout the course of its catalog, the band has changed its sound and style quite constantly. From its power metal roots early on, to the heavier comparison to the likes of Iced Earth as the band’s catalog has grown, to something more prog-leaning in Disciples of the Sun, to now this equally unique record’s sound, the change has been while not constant, still noticeable and welcome. The change here has produced 10 distinct arrangements that are sure to engage and entertain listeners in their own right from beginning to end.
The musical arrangements that are exhibited throughout Pyramaze’s new album are just a portion of what makes the album worth hearing. The lyrical themes that accompany the album’s make for their own interest. That is because in many cases the lyrical content is so metaphorical in nature that it leaves much of the record’s lyrical content wide open to interpretation. That is not an entirely bad thing. In other cases though, the message is clearer and interesting, such as in the case of the late entry, ‘The Mystery.’ The song’s subject, in this case, waxes existential about whether we are alone in the universe and how humans even came to exist. This as he sings in the song’s lead verse and chorus, “When I gaze into the sky at night/I see a race at the speed of light/Balls of fire/Reflections of the past/A lasting glimpse of a big time blast/Has it been forever/How do we fit in?/There’s a world beyond our own/Investigated yet unknown/History light years away/Still showing today/Wistful dreamer/True believer/We just can’t see/The great unsolved mystery.” Is Pyramaze the first band to ever craft a song wondering about mankind’s place in the universe? Odds are the answer is no, but the simple translation here makes the rumination easily accessible. The song’s subject continues his questioning in the song’s second verse, singing, “Was it evolution or was it heaven sent/We need more knowledge to apprehend/The world around us/Before we let it go/And we’re closing doors to its final show.” Again, here is that questioning whether the universe just came into being or whether a higher power created everything. It is an eternal question of the chicken and the egg that likely will never be fully answered and is sure to generate plenty of discussion among audiences. It is just one example of the importance of the album’s lyrical content. Earlier in the record’s run, ‘Fortress’ delivers its own familiar, accessible topic.
‘Fortress’ is the album’s third song (and second full track, as the album’s opener in an instrumental number). In the case of ‘Fortress’ the theme comes across as being that of determination and perseverance. This as the song’s subject sings here, “Somewhere in the distance/Sleepers wake and move to make amends/Subjected to the truth by others/Order has to be restored/If no one dares to move/It never ends/Out of the dark/Armed and controlled/Writing a story yet untold/Of too many men unwilling to face the cold/You better run this town/You need their backs against the wall/Don’t let emotions drag you down/You’ll have to wear that crown/You’ll have to show them once and for all/That they can never tear you down.” Here, clearly, is that message encouraging personal, inner strength, of being that strong person who is that proverbial fortress. That is because there are so few people out there who are so willing to that fortress, that firm leader of men, so to speak. The message of having that inner strength continues in the song’s second verse, in which the subject sings, “Somewhere in revolting ways/A merciless resisting is taking place/Determined to regain their lost land/No matter what the cost may be/Victorious for the human race.” In other words there are those who want to do bad; who want to take back that which was gained by the good, so it is up to the good, strong-willed to fight them and remember they are there. It is a familiar theme among rock records and just as welcome here as in songs from so many other bands.
‘Fortress’ is just one more of the songs that serves to show the importance of Bloodlines’ lyrical themes. ‘Even If You’re Gone,’ which serves as the record’s midpoint, is one more example of that importance. In the case of this song, it centers on the all-too-familiar theme of love lost, or so it would seem. Either that or unrequited love. This is inferred right from the song’s opening verse and chorus, which state, “Lost in the fire/Burning my skin like you warned me/Breaking the walls you build/To avoid all the pain outside/Will you finally be my destiny?/I see the light here/I know that you don’t But I wanna be the one you really want/Through the nightmares we’re chasing the dawn/I’ll be fighting for you/Even if you’re gone.” The subject continues in the song’s second verse, “I try to define the feelings inside of the broken/Emotional miles will draw us apart/But I won’t let go/Will you let me be your destiny?” Lots of people, if not everyone, have/has had similar thoughts and felt similar emotions in regard to relationships. To that end, the relatability and accessibility of said topic here makes it another clear example of why Bloodlines’ lyrical content is just as important to its presentation as the album’s musical arrangements. When the overall content is considered collectively the whole gives listeners reason enough to hear the album.
While the overall content featured in Bloodlines is reason enough for audiences to take in the album, there is still one more item to examine here. That item is the record’s production. The work that went into balancing the vocals and instrumentation in each song paid off well in each song. Whether in the record’s more fiery moments, such as the semi-symphonic metal of ‘Broken Arrow’ and the controlled power of ‘Fortress’ or in the more melodic approach of ‘Alliance’ and the album’s opener/title track, the work that went into creating the best possible emotional impact paid off in every song. The result is an aesthetic effect that will play just as much into listeners’ engagement and entertainment as the album’s content. Keeping that in mind, Bloodlines proves, in whole, to be a largely successful new offering from Pyramaze that metal audiences will find worth hearing at least once.
Bloodlines, the latest full-length studio recording from Pyramaze, is a largely positive new offering from the veteran metal outfit. Its success comes in part through its featured musical arrangements, which collectively continue to exhibit the change in the band’s sound and style that has been commonplace from the band from one album to the next. The lyrical themes that make up much of the record tend to leave themselves side open to interpretation, which is not necessarily a bad thing. There are other songs, as noted here, whose themes are more direct in their delivery. That combination of accessibility and “imagination” generated by the lyrical themes makes for its own interest. The album’s production rounds out its most important elements. That is because of the emotional depth that it ensures through its work. Each item examined here is important in its own way to the whole of the album’s presentation. All things considered they make Bloodlines an interesting new offering from Pyramaze that the band’s established audiences and metal fans alike will find worth hearing at least once.
Bloodlines is available now through AFM Records. More information on the album is available along with all of Pyramaze’s latest news at:
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