Somehow, someway, the bar keeps raising itself. If I am to keep finding myself before otherworldly pieces of excellent psychedelia that continuously show us just how bountiful 2024 has become for the concept, then I am going to have to simply get used to be surprised at what feels like practically every given turn. The scene has been overly fruitful with it feeling as though it's every other week that offers some new slab of raw excellence the likes of which are simply mind-bending with there being no exception when it comes to all that psychedelia is capable of. Rising from the depths of a long studio silence, Black Pyramid's return only further adds to the growing grandeur of the styles at paly here.
This is one of those bands that is iconic to those in the know, and, yet, I found myself before this record somehow without ever once hearing the name Black Pyramid that I can recall. Once I dove into this record, however, I couldn't help but find the fingerprints and words of Black Pyramid damn near everywhere I go. As much as I would love to sit here and agonize how it's taken me this long to come before such an act, the absolute whole of "The Paths of Time Are Vast" are simply overwhelming from beginning to end. An utterly mind-boggling experience that stretches past an hour long, "The Paths of TIme Are Vast" take into account what seems to be virtually every possible aspect of what this particular brand of stoner doom metal is able to bring to the table from the heaviness to the riffs to the atmospheres to the tasteful tempo that is constantly changing to expert execution that shows off the mastery that Black Pyramid has clearly made for itself over a storied run. Shivers run down the spine and the mind is downright intoxicated as this album unfolds before our very eyes with it being comparable to many of the acts who have come around this year to ensure the bar for the sound is as high as the stars themselves with every given detail of "The Paths of Time Are Vast" somehow surpassing those expectations in damn near every way.
It was just the other day I never knew the name of Black Pyramid, but now I will never forget it. This is the sort of album that ingrains itself in your very being with time never once removing its luster or magnificence in any form, and I can only feel like for those of us who were not aware of Black Pyramid previously then "The Paths of Time Are Vast" are before a grand beast that is hopefully lying in wait to show us what else it has up its sleeves. Even if it were to take another several years before we hear more, "The Paths of Time Are Vast" ensure that such a wait would be more than worth it.
LISTEN to "The Paths of Time Are Vast" on Bandcamp here.
LIKE Black Pyramid on Facebook here.
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