Holy shit, these Eisenach fuckers didn't waste any time. Barely a year after their self-titled debut crushed skulls in the underground, Vast Pyre are back with II Bleak, dropping on November 25 via Octopus Rising. And hell, this sophomore beast takes everything that made the first one a punishing slog and drags it deeper into the fucking abyss.
This is doom stripped to the bone, no bass, just guitar sludge so dense it feels like the air's turning to concrete around you, drums pounding like a slow execution, and vocals that rasp and howl from some traumatized void. The whole 43-minute ride is a claustrophobic nightmare: fuzz-drenched riffs grinding endlessly, feedback screeching like tortured souls, layers of drone and noise building into this oppressive wall that never lets up. It's got that Monolord-level tonnage mixed with Electric Wizard's hypnotic rot, but Vast Pyre crank the menace higher, trading any lush psych haze for pure morbid harshness. Minimalist as fuck, yet every riff hits with monumental weight, meditative in its repetition but punishing enough to make you feel the despair crawling under your skin.
Compared to the debut's already bleak drone-sludge assault, this one's darker, more immersive, more unforgiving, like they've peered straight into the cataract eyes of the dying and channeled that resignation into sound. No light breaks through, no hooks to grab onto, just unrelenting density and an aura of total fucking hopelessness. If you're a doom head chasing that soul-rotting high from Conan crawls or Slomatics density, this'll bury you alive and leave you grateful for it.
Underground filth at its finest. Snag the vinyl before the real maniacs hoard it all - this shit's built to rot your brain slow.
https://www.instagram.com/vast.pyre
Thanks to Grand Sounds PR.
