Pyramids

A cloudy squall of premium shoegazer atmospherics knits a warm blanket of contentment in "Sleds,” the opening track of this self-titled release by the Pyramids. This false sense of security is quickly shattered by a thrashing assault of programmed drums and dissonant guitar on "Igloo,” a pattern that becomes quite familiar over the course of the album’s ten songs. Variations on the combinations of warm, lush synths and aggressive industrial double bass drum sequences are the extent of the sonic territory the Pyramids chose to explore. The incessant pounding on "Hellmonk” is where the limitations of the band’s choice of percussive methods emerge and quickly begin verging on excruciating. There’s barely a deviation in the divisive pattern of abrasive industrial grind and over-thrashed ethereal numbers the album flips between until the closing trio of songs fully succumb to the mid-numbing gothic electro-percussion stuttering that makes what would otherwise be a solid shoegazer disc virtually un-listenable to anyone whose mother wasn’t pregnant with them while operating a jackhammer nine-to-five while listening to My Bloody Valentine obsessively.