By Ryan J. Nims
If you have read enough of my posts here on The Blog, you may have deduced that I have a soft spot for harder–edged, avant-garde sounds. Much of that love of the off-the-beaten-path-metal-adjacent music is thanks to one particular band: Denton, Texas’s Pyramids (R. Loren, M. Kraig, M. Dean, and D. William). I discovered this band a few years ago, due to their connection to shoegaze band The Autumns, a band I had followed since the late 1990s. When I first heard Pyramids’ self-titled debut (Hydra Head Records, 2008), I had no clue what I was listening to – it was like some hybrid of 4AD-style dreampop and underground black metal being set to an extraterrestrial musical notation. I recognized the melodic, soaring vocals from the Autumns, but that was about it. Everything else was alien. And I loved it. Their second album, A Northern Meadow (Profound Lore, 2015) was more straightforward, though still unusual in its song structures and just overall weirdness. Between the two studio albums, Pyramids embarked on several collaborative releases which featured everything from shoegaze, noise, doom metal, and dark ambient. But everything the band released from April 2008 to May 2015 was nothing if not fiercely experimental. Then the band went away.
Over the last ten years, Pyramids have shed their anonymity; three of the four core members are in the post-hardcore supergroup the Sound of Animals Fighting (TSOAF), made up of members from Rx Bandits, Saosin, Chiodos, Good Old War, and The Autumns. Last year, I started hearing rumblings that Pyramids were working on something new. Then, in January, their back catalog suddenly appeared on streaming services, curiously with trendsetting dark music label The Flenser listed as the copyright holder, as opposed to the defunct Hydra Head. On March 1st, we finally got the announcement: Pyramids would indeed be dropping a new album on May 2nd, to be released by The Flenser!
(L-R Rich Balling, Matthew Kelly, Emy Smith, David Embree, Matt Embree. Photo by Faith Malimba)
The brainchild of former Rx Bandits and current TSOAF member Rich Loren Balling, Pyramids features Matthew Kraig Kelly (The Autumns, TSOAF) on sung vocals, and brothers Matthew Dean (RxBandits, TSOAF) and David William Embree on guitars and drum programming, respectively. Balling performs harsh vocals, keyboards, and production. Recently, they added Buenos Aires-based singer Emy Smith to perform Spanish vocals.
Pyramids have so far released two songs from their forthcoming third album, Pythagorus (The Flenser, 2025). The album has been influenced by neoperreo, a raw, sensual form of reggaeton, as well as the blackgaze tendencies traditionally present in Pyramids’ music, giving an unexpected but vital pop flare to their avant-garde metal. According to Balling, “I surmise that some of the most innovative music in the last decade has taken place in female pop, and even more specifically, in female neoperreo and reggaeton. After years of listening to extreme metal and harsh noise, this was my ground zero for the next reinvention.”
“Fools Gold (Mi Vida Ha Ido Pa Atras)” opens with gauzy guitar sounds and a reggaeton beat underpinning Kelly’s angelic vocals. A third of the way through the song, Emy Smith comes in with Spanish-language vocals, before the song gives way to a darker section featuring indistinguishable harsh vocals low in the mix. Along with filmmakers Vivian Bartell and Steve Elkins (former drummer from The Autumns), Balling directed a wild video to go along with the song, showing the once-anonymous band members in full color. The video includes three sheep-masked figures who cover the band members’ heads in plastic wrap. It’s a disturbing image that the band has used for official promotional photos (as seen above).
Second single “Pretty Pigs” feels a bit more like a Latin-infused trip-hop song. It still features the characteristic dembow beat, but with more electronics and synths. Musically, it’s melodic and poppy, but with a rough edge. The lyrics are repetitive, cryptic, and in the case of the Spanish vocals, sexy. According to Balling, “sometimes songs just happen, so it is hard to capture just how this one went down… but the pieces definitely fell into place here. If I was to lead with a question for context, it would be ‘Why do the wicked prosper?’ ‘Pretty Pigs’ is for those that share a high sense of injustice. An inner monologue constructed within the crosshairs of melody and misfortune. This is one of the most vivid realizations of genre juxtaposition on Pythagoras.” The video for “Pretty Pigs” was made by the same crew as “Fools Gold” and is just as off-putting with its surrealist, animal-masked weirdness.
I reached out to Rich Balling to find out about the making of the new album:
What inspired you to bring Pyramids out of retirement?
I just can’t seem to stop. Music is in my blood, and it is as if I will go in super deep creating an album for one project and channel all my energy towards that, during which time other projects sort of get to rest, and then when I finish it I need something to fill that void so I start the brainstorming process for where I might take another project. In this case, between the 2015 Profound Lore release of A Northern Meadow and 2024, I focused on my extremely busy family schedule with two kids, the Hospital Gown album, which functioned as a sort of therapy through personal turmoil, and an EP and subsequent tour for The Sound of Animals Fighting. I don’t know if this will resonate with many, but it should at least make sense to other musicians: once you essentially give birth to a record that has been the target of so much energy, you need a break from it. It is almost as if it is painful to listen to it, even though it is the product of all that energy and time. So when that happens, I need to shift my obsessive thoughts and focus on something new. It is in that cadence that I find myself juggling projects. It felt like it was time. I just couldn’t help but notice how saturated the landscape has become with shoegaze-influenced bands, and was simultaneously immersed in female neoperreo artists. It occurred to me that neoperreo, and reggaeton in general, is such a global force and would synthesize naturally with metal, just as shoegaze has done. Ideas like that excite me, and the challenge to build this hybrid started there.
How did neoperreo become incorporated into Pyramids sound?
The easiest way to explain it would be to say that I am a girl dad. And after listening to avant-noise and metal for so long, all the car rides with pop music and the family won me over and became a nice break from the heady experimental and depressive nature of everything else. Enough hours with Taylor Swift in the car led me to branching out to more innovative artists like Charli XCX, whose list of collaborators alone presents a world for exploration. It was through Charli that I discovered Brooke Candy, and through Brooke, I discovered La Goony Chonga, then La Zowi, Bea Pelea, Six Sex, Emjay, Karol G, etc. Once I was in that space, it became clear that these rhythms that are so present the world over [and] could function well within the avant-metal universe.
The album cover is unique in featuring nail art. How did that come about, and how does the artwork connect to the music?
Many of the artists I named above go to Krocaine, who is one of the best nail artists in the world. Since this album marks a shift in sound with Spanish female vocals and global rhythms, it felt like the right icon to represent that shift. I also love how the shadow under the hand creates an ominous feeling, which is easy to associate with metal.
Can you speak as to why the band chose to no longer remain anonymous?
The traditional metal fan can be very hard to win over. In 2007, when we started, many of our other projects were so active and so disparate from metal that it just felt like judgement would precede the listening of our music, and that we might not get a fair shake. Bands like Liturgy and Deafheaven had to endure incredible levels of judgement, and they didn’t have the connotations that we came with (ie ska, screamo, etc). Since so much of black metal includes anonymity and reclusive behavior, it was totally appropriate to engage in that practice, while simultaneously benefiting from avoiding so much of the judgement that might have come otherwise. 2025 doesn’t seem too far in the future from that, but the world has changed greatly. Doesn’t 2007 mark the first big model of iPhone? That just shows you how far the world has come since then. In that short amount of time, it has become incredibly more safe to engage in multiple genres both as a fan and as a musician. 20 years ago, you were a punk, or a hardcore kid, or a metal kid. Now, you might go to a hardcore show and see a rap, post-punk, or indie band on that bill and not give it a second thought. We have always used our real names, we just presented with our middle names rather than our last names.
The Flenser is a perfect fit for Pyramids! Did you approach them, or did they court the band?
We approached The Flenser. Jonathan [Tuite, label founder] knows the project, but nobody was aware that we had been working on new music, so he wouldn’t have thought to court us even if he wanted to. It has been a great experience. I met Jonathan online about 15 years ago when The Flenser was young and I had just launched the Handmade Birds label. It had been a number of years since we talked, but when I reached out, we were able to pick up the conversation as if no time had passed. I agree, they are the perfect label for this release. We had an incredible experience with Profound Lore on A Northern Meadow, but I felt like this record leaned way more into dark indie territory than the overtly metal landscape that has been the focus of Profound Lore in the last couple [of] years.
What’s next for this era of Pyramids? Will we see more collaborative projects in the future?
To be honest, I would love to jump right into working on the next record. We started putting this one together at the end of 2023, and it took a full year or more to get it done. A Northern Meadow took almost five years. We are all so busy that it is hard to plot a timeline, but I’d love to continue focusing on this sound. I feel that there is far more to say and do with it. In addition, I intend on pushing a new solo project using the sofffialoren moniker, which will also focus on metal and neoperreo at its base. I just love the two genres so much, and with less and less space to find interesting sounds, I am excited to dig further into this.
Pythagoras will be in stores and on streaming services on May 2, 2025, via The Flenser. Physical releases of the album can be preordered through Pyramids’ Bandcamp page or The Flenser’s website.
Tune in next week, when I’ll be posting a full review of the album!