A quick backstory; PYYRAMIDS are OK GO bassist Tim Nordwind and He Say, She Say vocalist Drea Smith, but PYYRAMIDS aren’t a side project (or that’s what they say anyway).
The two initially bonded over British Post-Punk bands from the 80s, but ‘Brightest Darkest Day’ draws from a whole wealth of influences beyond that. It isn’t an album to throw a capital of unexpected surprises in your face, but it is eleven songs of solid, dark and grimy song-writing.
Besides the obvious eighties influences there are also nods to nineties noise in the likes of ‘Hole’ and ‘PJ Harvey’, and opening intro track is barely a whisker away from sounding like a full blown Nine Inch Nails effort.
The duo aren’t afraid to frustrate though, on occasions, most notably ‘Smoke and Mirrors’ the track builds and builds but never really comes to anything, and the result is one of angst and aggression, emotions, fundamental throughout the album.
‘Paper Doll’ is the single, and it manages to keep its industrial-like identity saving it from sounding somewhat like an anomaly, in-between other more organic tracks like ‘Do You Think You’re Enough’ which savagely switches between full blown noise to a melodic, acoustic outro.
‘Time (intro)’ and the following track ‘Time’ are perhaps the most notable numbers that pull from the previously mentioned ‘80s post punk’ with the plinking piano and chilling echoes that aren’t too far-off from sounding like New Order, if you really imagine.
‘Brightest Darkest Day’ succeeds in incorporating all its influences without ever playing like an album from those eras. It manages to sound like a modern hellish disco with dazzling effect. Few bands are attacking it as ruthlessly as PYYRAMIDS and from two artists with such an incomparable sound prior to this the outcome is really quite impressive.
Brightest Darkest Day is out now on Paracadute records.