Some albums play in the background. Others loom.
“II | Bleak” by Vast Pyre does the latter—rising like a soot-covered monolith from somewhere deep beneath the floorboards of doom metal. It’s a record that doesn’t simply embrace darkness; it drags you into it, slowly tightening the walls until the air itself feels thick with fuzz, drone, and echoing dread.
The duo’s second album wastes no time setting the tone. “Begotten” storms forward in a haze of scorched fuzz and psychedelic distortion, its opening moments almost deceptive in their forward momentum. For a brief spell it feels like the chains have been loosened. But Vast Pyre are creatures of doom, and doom arrives inevitably. The riffs thicken, the tempo sinks, and the track settles into a suffocating crawl where every chord feels like a slab of granite sliding into place.
With “Tenebrosity’s Path,” the record descends further into the abyss. Stoic, filthy riffs march forward with monolithic patience, towering like black pillars in a ruined cathedral. The vocals hover somewhere between lament and hallucination—drenched in reverb, drifting through the mix like a distant specter. When occasional choral flourishes emerge, they feel less like triumph and more like a ghostly ceremony unfolding beneath a sky that has long since gone dark.
“The Untold” introduces brief flickers of movement within the gloom. Vast Pyre allow their riffs to breathe for a moment, nudging the tempo toward a shadowy mid-pace groove while melodic guitar lines briefly glint like embers under ash. Yet even these moments of motion never break the spell. The gravity of the album pulls everything back down into its dense, hypnotic core.
The descent concludes with “Perdition Fatal”, a ten-minute closing rite that feels like stepping deeper into subterranean catacombs. Sinister intro chords echo through the void while feedback coils around the riffs like smoke. Growls surface from the depths, and the track advances with the grim inevitability of a slow funeral procession, swallowing the last traces of light as it fades.
What makes “II | Bleak” so compelling is its weight. Vast Pyre understand that doom isn’t merely about slowness—it’s about presence, density, and atmosphere. Their sound is minimal yet immense, drawing from the psychedelic haze of stoner doom and the crushing patience of the genre’s darkest corners while still carving out an identity that feels strangely modern.
The result is an album that feels less like a collection of songs and more like a descent. A heavy, immersive experience where fuzz becomes fog, riffs become walls, and time itself seems to move differently.
By the time the final note dissolves, the silence feels cavernous. And stepping back into the light almost feels unnatural.
This is pure Doom - get it or regret it!
-Helge Neumann
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