PYREXIA — Unholy Requiem (review)

PYREXIA — Unholy Requiem album cover Album · 2018 · Brutal Death Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
3/5 ·
UMUR
"Unholy Requiem" is the 5th full-length studio album by US death metal act Pyrexia. The album was released through Unique Leader Records in September 2018. It´s the successor to "Feast of Iniquity" from 2013 and features several lineup changes since the predecessor as there have been changes on both the lead vocalist, the drummer, and guitarist positions in the band. As always it´s guitarist Chris Basile who has held the flag high and assembled a new lineup. Basile is also credited with recording, mixing, and mastering "Unholy Requiem".

Stylistically "Unholy Requiem" sounds unmistakably like the preceding releases by Pyrexia. It´s brutal technical death metal, but with strong hardcore leanings, which is basically the music style the band have played since their formation in the early 1990s. The focus on ultra heavy hardcore grooves was something new and different in death metal back then, but nothing out of the ordinary today. Being one of the seminal artists to use hardcore grooves in death metal doesn´t mean you are except from trying to develop your sound or to forge an unique style, especially when being around as long as Pyrexia have been, and I think the band neglect to do that here. "Unholy Requiem" doesn´t feature a very original sound and it could just as easily have been released by one of the other thousands of bands playing this style.

"Unholy Requiem" features 8 tracks and a total playing time of 25:08 minutes, so this is a short and raw release, but with music as brutal as this, a short playing time isn´t always an issue. Pyrexia are a well playing act and the material are generally well written and effective too, but it´s not exactly hook laden and catchy, but again with music as brutal as this it´s not to be expected.

"Unholy Requiem" features a decent production job (the vocals are slightly too high in the mix), but it´s not a sound which elevates the music beyond what is standard in the genre, and that can be said about most features on the album. The songwriting, the musicianship, and the sound production are all of a standard quality and little on the album reaches excellent territories, but that´s more or less the story of all the preceding releases by the band too. It´s hard edged, brutal, and technically well played and definitely entertaining while it plays, but also pretty soon forgotten after it has ended. A 3 - 3.5 star (65%) rating is warranted.
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