Pyromancer - Absolute Dominion By Fire

Pyromancer is a blackened death metal band from Kentucky, who hit the scene in 2015 with their debut demo.  After a split album last year, they are now dropping their full-length debut album, “Absolute Dominion By Fire.”

Remember in Lord of the Rings when Gimili said, “I wish I could muster a legion of Dwarves, fully armed and filthy?”  Well, I’m still not exactly sure what that means but this album is fully armed and filthy.  The hellish atmosphere settles across a broken landscape of jagged black metal riffs and death metal grooves. In essence, the music matches the fiery desolation of the cover art.   

I like the album’s embracement of varying tempos.   There are blast beats galore and many passages of outright demonic ravaging but among these treacherous catacombs rest mid pace riffs and even slower, kinda doom-ish tempos.  I smelled sulfur while listening to the music take these little twists but then realized it was just my farts. Still, the images the music conjured in my head are not pretty—and that’s exactly how music like this should sound.  

The production helps a lot in winning me over.  While it isn't as raw as shitting in a corpse's mouth while playing the recorder, it’s definitely rough around the edges—again, this is exactly what I want to hear in an album like this.

“Igniting the Sacrificial Pyre,” sets the album up with a grim outlook, beginning with the embers of a stark darkness that roars to a groovy beat down. It's a hard hitting intro that is heavy on the albums thematic atmopshere.

“Perverse Immolation” displays the bands prowess for quick bursts of blackened violence, which is probably something that would be needed if someone was a pervert and lighting people on fire. The riffs at the 1:41 mark are devastating And the drums compliment them powerfully. Subtle keys act as a clever bridge to the ultra rage fest that follows afterwards. 

“Barbaric Wrath,” is one of my favorites on the album, not the least for the slower tempos where the vocals embrace a more death metal oriented approach. After the 1:58, the bell tone if encroaching death strikes As deadly as the riffs and drums–a wonderful ending of finality. 

“Alchemical Red Death,” is a steady burner with a classic blackened riff getting the adrenaline pumping within seconds. After the two minute mark, what amounts to melody for this album slides in with a kick Ass melancholic passage that winds itself up into a frenzy.

The album ends on “Volcanic Rapture,” which is a phrase that probably is as violent as the song makes it out to be. The rhythm goes hard throughout with riffs that are surprisingly catchy. The vocals are menacing—this song is fast and scary all at once and a stellar ending to the album.

Pyromancer’s “Absolute Dominion By Fire,” is a very strong debut with a convincing grasp on the power of underground extreme music.

Rating:  Great