II

With Black Pyramid’s eponymous 2009 album, the Northampton, Mass.–based trio gave the longhair community a promising grip of psychedelic sludge punctuated by a deep, rumbling bass guaranteed to put the bottom back into your bellbottoms. If Black Pyramid’s 2012 sophomore long-player sounds like a different group, that’s because an important third of the band is different. While the rhythm section of drummer Clay Neely and bassist Dave Gein has stayed intact, the trio’s axe-wielding frontman Andy Beresky has been replaced by Darryl Shepard. The opening song, “Endless Agony,” plays as if Black Pyramid’s decade worship has evolved from early-'70s hard rock to early-'80s heavy metal. Long gone are the doomy dirges reminiscent of Sleep’s Holy Mountain. With Shepard as the new voice, the band has found a collective voice. This is best exemplified in the second song, “Mercy’s Bane,” where early UFO–inspired guitars rev like a motorcycle gang over thundering rhythms and Shepard’s howls recall a young Lemmy Kilmister singing catchy melodies. Fans of the first album will dig the lengthy closer, “Into the Dawn.”