review: Pile of Priests

Pile of Priests

Self-Titled

Extreme Metal Music / Rockshots Records

22 May 2020

POP is a death metal band from the state of Colorado, U.S. It is an old-school sensibility with melodies that give them some catchiness to go with the brutal vocals and heaviness. POP is for die-hard fans of the old school that enjoy checking out bands that are lesser known that labor in local scenes around the world, not caring much for popularity nor the lack of money in this subgenre. It is death metal in a 1990s progressive vein; melodic, riff-centered, and a bit busier than the retro/old/traditional, zombie-gore-loving brutal and primal styles; but not the frantically, hyper complex, dizzying sounds of jazz tech-death of today. It is rather accurate to say that perhaps the musicians grew up with 1990s Death’s progressive sound or that they appreciate that part of Death a whole lot, and bands like Death that were pushing death metal in progressive directions.The music is good, the songs are good and they seem like a band that has taken years to reach the balance between death metal bruteness and adding some sophistication (notice that the band name reflects an earlier, immature zombie-loving mentality of when the band was first formed).

The vocals are the most ambivalent point to consider. While the music shows sophistication, the vocals are straight up lower, throaty growling. Fans that truly love the brutal throat growling might really enjoy the band’s approach on this front, due to the feel of the vocals. However, I get the feeling that something is slightly off, and I’ve thought about it. One potential problem is that the vocals are too high in the mix, too loud when compared to the music and take up too much attention. Bringing them down would make the listen smoother so that we can hear the music more clearly. The vocals show little variation from the monotone brute style, and when there are some higher screams I’m not entirely sure that the screams are at the level of the musicianship. The last song has melodic singing by a person that is probably a guest, further showing the band’s desire to go beyond basic death metal, but the growling itself is brutal death metal.

What is a potential solution? Perhaps a relevant example and solution is the early albums (the first two, basically) by Insomnium (Finland). It’s gruff growling, but the vocals are mixed at a very nice balance, and they do not dominate nor take up unnecessary attention. It’s a practical solution as to what to do with deeper growling in the context of sophisticated music. By the way, the bits of spoken words by POP on this album work well; the deep voice somehow just sounds about perfect, and it’s something that the Finnish band did, too, actually. Anyway, having listened to this POP album, it’s clear how good the work on it is, even on the latter half of the album; a great effort all around by everyone. Personally, I love the band’s serious ambition to make good music. I have to respect metal bands that hard work and have aspirations to write songs with good musicianship.