Pyrrah – “Eternal Cremation” EP (2008)

Label : Satanica Productions

Review by Tony Cannella

I can’t think of a more male dominated genre of music than death metal. Thankfully artists such as Angela Gossow of Arch Enemy and Sabina Classen of Holy Moses just to name a few have stepped to the forefront and shattered the Death Metal or Extreme Metal stereotype. One of the newer bands to emerge on to the Death Metal scene is Toronto, Canada’s Pyrrah. The band is fronted by 18-year old female vocalist Christine P. Newman. She is joined by George (Lead/Rhythm Guitar), David W. (Bass) and Dave (Drums). The band play an extremely bombastic brand of technical Death Metal, with Emilie Christine P. Newman‘s guttural vocals leading the way. Pyrrah have just issued their 4-song EP “Eternal Cremation” and man this should appeal to anyone who likes their metal extreme.  The opening track “Bestial Plague” kicks things into gear with a cool opening guitar solo as the song really gets going and in come the brutal vocals of Emilie Christine. Her vocals are very strong and a driving force in the band. The song is just straight-forward brutality and the band pretty much doesn’t stray too much from their chosen path. The guitar work is also quite impressive with lead guitarist George adding a technical almost virtuoso flair to his solos and guitar riffs. His solos in particular are very good and hard to ignore. “The Lake of Burning Suffering” is next and it opens with a positively fierce guitar riff that chugs along as the rest of the members join in. The song is powerful and definitely heavy. “Human Debris” is next and once again it begins with a great guitar riff as the vocals of Emilie Christina comes in and just crushes. The final track is the almost 8-minute “Sleepwalkers”. This is probably the most technically proficient of all of the songs on this disc and it also happens to be my favorite. The song features some cool time changes that are really different from anything else on the CD. The break and guitar solo near the end almost reminded me of something on the first Iron Maiden album. Very cool and an excellent way to end things. “Eternal Cremation” features 4-songs and 26-minutes worth of some quality Death Metal by this up-and-coming Toronto band. I will be the first to admit that I am absolutely no authority on death metal but it seems to me that Pyrrah has a unique way of writing songs, especially when it comes to the guitar parts and solos. “Eternal Cremation” is a seriously heavy, ass-kicker of a CD.