Pyrexia - Sermon of Mockery

(Originally Written in 2007)

I was stoked to hear Pyrexia had re-formed again - I used to love the band in my early teens. However, this was until I realized that this 'new' Pyrexia has only one of the original members from their original line-up (the only notable former band member being early guitarist Guy Marchais, who's now shredding ears with Suffocation). But, as a way of respect to one of the first death metal bands I'd ever heard, I thought I'd order it anyway, and in the meantime stick a review through of the release that started it all for them: 'Sermon of Mockery'.

'Sermon of Mockery' features some excellent, bassy Suffocation-esque New York death metal, which is mainly mid-paced, but does vary the pace quite widely with raging sections contrasting the slow crushing double-bass drum driven breakdown sections. Opening with the albums title track, a springy bass driven riff tears you a new asshole, pounding you into submission from the very off. Darryl Wagner's sub-woofer vocals are nothing out of the ordinary for the genre, and nothing outstanding either, but it's the music that really sees this album pushing its rating toward the max. Riff upon riff of grinding rhythmic early 90's styled brutality, with the type of bassy production that pushes against your ears rather than actually hearing it. At times as chaotic as a decompression in an aircraft whilst retaining control with the mid-paced trauma, there's even some early Immolation styled riffs that seep into the bands sound for some parts, adding an extra facet to the already multi-faceted gem.

I think the reason I love this album so much, is the fact that it's about as predictable as chaos theory, and coupled with the Satanic imagery and lyrical stance the whole experience of the album is akin to some sort of invocation of the dark one. Go seek it out if you can (I think it's been out of print for a while, but you may find it on a download somewhere if you're lucky). It's a true slab of prime death metal from the heady days of the early 90's.