After stealing The Funeral Pyre away from Creator Destructor Records and then re-issuing the band’s impressive second offering, here is the Prosthetic Records debut from California black metal act and there have been some slight changes from The Nature of Betrayal.

The most obvious change is that keyboardist Daniella Jones is no longer in the band, and thusly Wounds has none of the synths that graced The Nature of Betrayal. Secondly any remote metalcore kids trying to sound black metal sound (I’m looking at you Abigail Williams) that might have had slight appearance on The Nature, have been fully removed as the band now sound utterly Scandinavian.

Wounds is a melodic black metal album, a pretty good one at that. From the feral vocals, tremolo picked blast beats and scathing melodies, The Funeral Pyre are in no way as adventurous or groundbreaking as fellow US black metal acts like Leviathan, Nachtmystium, Cobalt or Krallice (or even the new Withered), as they make no qualms about their Naglfar/Dissection/Necrophobic worship, but they do attack it with a youthful, fresh vigor.

John Strachan rasps with aplomb as the riffs gallop and canter with a precise, yet raw furor that’s both melodic and seething. The overall sound is slightly less polished that the Nature of Betrayal and drummer Alex Hernandez could improve his blast beats, but what gives the album its appeal is its energy. The Funeral Pyre, while hardly innovative song or riff writers seem absolutely honest and forthright in their desire to ply black metal. The result is collection of impressive, if samey and slightly too long songs that have some very cools riffs contained in their blackened hues.

After relatively competent but hardly attention grabbing “Thieves”, “Black Earth” reveals the albums first true great riff and the title track shows some variety and time changes that should have been as deeply on more tracks. As it stands tracks like “The Gathering Bones”, “These Ties that Bind”, “Arches of Existence”, “When the Light Ends” ,the solid “Devourer” and solemn closer “The Ghost Walker” deliver predictable but enjoyable chord progressions of a black nature, that are furious yet harmonious but never forced.

However, I’ll admit some of Wounds thunder (and my attention) was stolen by Withered’s Folie Circulaire, being released within a month of each other, but that’s does not stop Wounds being a good album from a very promising young band who have yet to reach their potential.

[Visit the band's website]

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