Time Signature Wild child...

Genre: hard grunge rock

In the 90s hard rock suffered from the influence of grunge. While the rock scene of the early 90s was still characterized by the features that defined 80s hard rock, the arrival of grunge changed hard rock completely, taking it in a much more introvert and primitive direction. There were a lot of elements in grunge that could have been implemented in hard rock and made it more interesting, but – unfortunately – many hard rock bands either called it quits or went all out grunge.

Pyramada's debut The Time Is Now approximates what I think a more bold hard-rock-grunge blend would have sounded like. Retaining the crunch and groove of hard rock, Pyramada infuse their music with melody-syles and attitudes that would define 90s grunge rock, and this works quite well. Pyramada teach us that 70s hard rock grooves, 80s metal guitar harmonies and 90s shoegazing melodies can easily be combined into something attractive. As a bonus, the bass is not only audible but also quite dynamic and definitely drives the songs to a large extent along with the riffage and the melodies. The vocals have a slightly husky quality to them which might be an acquired taste to some, but it does have that 90s rock quality to it that fans of grunge might like.

Fans of 90s rock who are interested in a more successful blend of metal and grunge than what Metallica could do on Load and ReLoad should check this one out.

(review originally posted at seaoftranquility.org)