The Funeral Pyre – “The Nature of Betrayal”

As many people are aware, most bands today cross genres. Sometimes the genres have a link, and other times the genres are complete opposites. An example of this genre-crossing would be with The Funeral Pyre, who blend black metal and death metal together, ultimately forming one insane musical style. Their disc The Nature of Betrayal was originally released in 2006 by Creator-Destructor Records, but was re-released by Prosthetic Records in March of 2007.

If you’re looking for something new and up and coming, I suggest you give these guys a good listen. The song writing is superb, excelling to new levels that this “genre” has never before seen. The lyrical structure and content is also amazing: they bring up many key, current, societal issues, yet write about it all in from a medieval point of view. Topics such as the right and wrong reasons for murder, the falling of a tyrant, and the death of the planet are all covered. Sure it can be typical, but these guys really know what they’re talking about when it comes to world issues.

An especially sick track on the album is “Victims”. The song kicks off with a melodic death metal riff, harmonic keyboards in the background, and a double bass so intense that my jaw clenched and then rushes all around like wild rapids. The only thing that put me off here were the vocals. The vocalist is fairly monotonous… He doesn’t have a bad scream, he just doesn’t have very much variety. Nevertheless, when he does utter a lower growl or two, he does give it a venomous feel.

The production of the album was amazing, the artwork was magnificent, but most importantly the music was stupefying. If you’re a fan of older In Flames or Dimmu Borgir, I suggest picking this one up.  [ END ]

Track Listing:

01. 200 Years
02. In The Wake
03. Here the Sun Never Shines
04. The Nature of Betrayal
05. Plague That Leads to Extinction
06. Victims
07. Stealing the Air of Life
08. Ending the Eternal Reign

Run Time: 43:02
Release Date: 03.20.2007