Pyramids

Little is known about the secretive quartet named Pyramids beyond their Denton, Texas base, yet their sound reveals an audacious drive to fuse atmospheric post-rock, black metal, and harsh industrial textures with rarer strains such as art rock, hardcore, and psychedelia into an arresting hybrid all their own. That hybrid first reached listeners in its full perplexing form through the band’s self-titled 2008 debut on Hydra Head, an album whose exploratory path continued on a companion disc of remixes credited to Jesu, Blut Aus Nord, James Plotkin (ex-Scorn, Flux, Old Lady Drivers), and Ted Parsons (of Prong and Godflesh). A further joint effort, the 2009 album The Pyramids recorded with Nadja, was mixed and mastered by James Plotkin and included bass contributions from Simon Raymonde on two tracks plus vocals from Chris Simpson of Mineral and Albin Julius of Der Blutarsch on one track apiece. The group next appeared on the five-cassette set Wvndrkmmer issued by Small Doses in 2010, and in early 2012 Hydra Head released Throne Without a King, a collaboration with Jenks Miller’s Horseback.