Drawing influence from a variety of bands including Mortiferum, Liturgy, Krallice, Birthday Party, Gorguts, Plebeian Grandstand, Caustic Wound, and Kayo Dot, PYRAMID MASS focuses on a sound that rejects complicity through somber and inspiring aggression. The band’s new offering Monolith was recorded by Kevin Bernsten (Full of Hell, Magrudergrind, Weekend Nachos, Noisem, Pig Destroyer) with technical help from Matt Redenbo (Eyelet, War on Women, Black Lung, Misled Youth) at Developing Nations in Baltimore. Mastered by James Plotkin (Sunn O))), Isis, Pelican). Today, we’re thrilled to give you a mind-blowing teaser of this vicious monster, in the form of distubring new single “Mutiny” that will rip you apart and then leave you puzzled.
Pyramid Mass (previously Doubtfire) is Matt Wild (drums/vocals), Nick Crider (guitar/vocals), and Joey Anderson (bass/vocals/synth). Formed in 2014 in Richmond, VA, Pyramid Mass was created by Nick Crider (Dumb Waiter) and Matt Wild (Hellbear). Joey Anderson (Night Idea) soon joined as the bassist. After several years of experimenting with their sound, Pyramid Mass has honed in on a more avant-garde perspective on thrash, black metal and hardcore.
“We’ve spent the past few years silently focusing on saga-esque song structures and blatantly gnarly tones.” – comments guitarist and vocalist Nick Crider.
“I truly love stacking pedals that shouldn’t be stacked, playing the wrong notes, getting out of tune, and watching Joey play through broken amps. I am grateful to be playing music with people that share those sensibilities while also being able to reserve and be particular. Matt is probably one of the most pummeling drummers I’ve ever played with and Joey tends to write bass lines that make me seem smarter than I am.”
“Monolith” is a culmination of everything the band has learned over the years.
“When deciding to change our name, we were focusing on having our image better represent our music.” – continues Nick. “We considered the cannon of imagery and tones of sub genres of metal we identified with. While keeping those ideas in our minds, we also wanted to make sure we kept representing how unconventional our sound can be, so we focused our efforts on imagery that was both classically metal yet off-putting, unclear, and mysterious.”
Three other songs from the album are available for your listening pleasure, too.
“…in Nick Crider’s words — ‘have zeroed in on a more avant-garde perspective on thrash, black metal and hardcore.’ You can definitely hear all three of those genres manifesting themselves in interesting ways on Doubtfire’s debut EP Spewtrid, which takes admitted influence from Liturgy, Krallice (whose Colin Marston mastered the EP), Daughters, Kayo Dot, and others and should appeal to fans of all four of those bands.” — BrooklynVegan
“Featuring members of Dumb Waiter, Hellbear and Night Idea, Doubtfire’s chameleonic combination of bleak and esoteric subgenres comes after a solid four or five years of wood shedding. Feeling that foisting their growing pains onto the public would do everyone a disservice, Spewtrid comes after intensive practice sessions, trial and error sonic architecture and limited releases, as touched upon when we asked the band to introduce themselves.” — Decibel
Pyramid Mass will release their debut full-length record, Monolith, on January 20th, 2023 on Ossien Records.
