Pyre of the Earth - Mountain Temple (2015) / 74%

Psychedelic camping trip

This is the first release of this quartet from Glasgow and it's pretty legit. The two song extended play is a rightful mix of doom/stoner and psychedelia combined with hypnotic female vocals from a Scottish druidess (Pete Steele would definitely ask her to be his druidess...). She also did the mysteriously orange cover art (like their amps?) and it's a fitting visual counterpart to their aural production.

The two songs are both around nine minutes and they're slow and thundering. Despite the vocals, this is not atmospheric pop doom like Jex Thoth. They're more disciples of the mighty Sleep and their drug fueled mesmerizing heavyness. You can certainly hear the Al Cisneros' inspired vivid bass tone. Speaking of Al, there's some Om as well, for damn sure, just read the spiritual lyrics to be sure. The guitars are heavy as hell and are almost always constantly exploring some psychedelic induced trips. There's a fair share of soloing and leads, it's super cool, fuzzy and it's one of the reasons that their extended song structure formula works well.  Not as good as High Priest of Saturn, a Norwegian band that could be identified as a similar being, Pyre of the Earth is already showing many signs of maturity as their sound is developed enough. I could see them push the psychedelic envelope a little more in the future though.

Eilidh Harris's vocals are clean and lovely but she's not a powerhouse like Uta Plotkin, she's rather subdued and a bit too buried in the mix for my taste but the combination of her soft voice with the stoner goods is worthwhile. It's a good debut for these guys and I'll follow their endeavors.

Pyre of the Earth on Bandcamp
PotE on Facebook

The band is currently looking for a bassist and a drummer if you're in Scotland and willing to groove.