| Track Listing
1. Prelude � The struggling spirit 2. Of heresy 3. The serpent fancy 4. Aurora of new Creation 5. A shadow in mist 6. The prognostic fancy 7. Lonebird 8. Release Year: 2002 Label: Self Released |
Pyrkagia - 'Heretic fragments' - By C. Diamantis
Pyrkagia is a one-man band from Finland and like many of the bands coming from the Scandinavian countries they play black metal. This is the first release of the band, at least that I�m aware of, and I must say that it�s a quite good beginning. Their style, while not very difficult to describe initially since they play what we came to call melodic black metal, draws elements from various bands of the genre. The two major influences I spotted in the album are Burzum (in the use of keyboards and structure of some songs) and Summoning (in the epic atmosphere and in some of the �cleaner� moments of the album). To a much lesser degree we can detect some influence from bands like Dimmu Borgir in some of the more symphonic parts. The music is mostly slow, with some faster moments in the drum section mostly and the instrument that dominates the album are the keyboards. In some parts they are used a piano in order to add melody, in some parts they are used to add a symphonic touch to the music, but their presence is always apparent in the music and the atmosphere. Since, as I said before, Pyrkagia have only one member, it is very probably that all the instruments have been played by keyboards, like is the case in Burzum, but I guess that�s expected and it isn�t a serious drawback in the particular style. The vocals in the album can be divided in two categories, clean and brutal. The second are good, mostly because they�re not so high-pitched like in many other black metal bands, but the clean vocals could use some improvement. The problem with this release is the same that many bands have during their first releases, there some good ideas (quite a few actually) but the compositions can�t hold the interest of the listener for a long period of time. The more melodic parts of the music seem interesting but the style they chose to follow is very difficult in creating an album full of interesting compositions. The intro and the song �Of Heresy� are very good and the same goes for the last song of the album, the instrumental �Release�. All in all, this is a good effort for a new band and although there are a few parts that need improvement, time can fix that if the effort continues. Maybe if they were formed a band with a full line-up the result would be better, but then bands like Burzum show that this isn�t always necessary. Many fans of melodic black metal would surely enjoy this work and I hope that the future will hold even better things for the band. Metal Obsessive Grade: 65% |