FMA: Pyrexia: Feast of Iniquity (2013)

Originally reviewed here.

Pyrexia used to be amazing. The band formed in New York in the early 1990's and helped usher in the slam, technical, and brutal death metal scenes. They were part of the same scene as Suffocation and Internal Bleeding and their debut album Sermon of Mockery is cited as one of the principle influences on the slam death scene in particular. That was then, however.

Since that time, more and more groove influences have crept their way into Pyrexia's sound. I enjoy a strong groove in death metal, but sometimes bands can take it too far. Just look at the latest Obituary album for proof of that. But then Jungle Rot pulls it off quite well. Unfortunately this album by Pyrexia falls a little bit closer to the Obituary example than the Jungle Rot.

The first track starts off great and features a lot of energy and some killer riffs. But then every song after that is basically the same. Pyrexia is just rehashing a bunch of old ideas that sounded a lot better by the many bands that they are trying to sound like. It's unfortunate to see the once-great Pyrexia come to this, but here we are.

The vocals are another problem. I like my death metal vocals brutal. These are not nearly brutal enough. In fact it is far too easy to understand the lyrics here, and that is a problem when they are particularly juvenile. Death metal is not well-known for its complex lyrics, but these are pretty laughable.

Pyrexia has run out of ideas and now sounds like a Six Feet Under knockoff. That is a big problem.