New Music: Pyramids: "Sleds" [MP3/Stream]
Not a concept band about yet another past-prime Nicolas Cage film, nor a timely sequel to Alan Parsons Project's two-decades-old Pyramid, Pyramids are a Denton, Texas-based band alternating between guitar-driven ambient pieces and a hazier approximation of Hydra Head labelmates Jesu's slow-diving metallurgy. I put on "Sleds", the opening track from Pyramids' self-titled full-length, thinking I was supposed to be hearing a metal record, but this one's squarely on the ethereal side of the dichotomy. As multi-layered guitars crumble and burn out, a high, incomprehensible male voice reverberates and decays, bringing to mind Deerhunter's more ambient moments, such as "White Ink". "Sleds" may not have the rewarding details, the perceptual drift-encouraging repetitions, or the broader album-related significance of that gorgeous track, but it's not a bad way to wind down at the end of another hectic Monday. Fine, a manic one, either.
