Our ancient kin to perdition’s restraints go to rack and ruin, dissolved by a blood-thick bile coughed from the belly of the false faith that’d shackled him in the first place. That which endures without balance will inevitably consume itself, atrophying every moment they’d deny the adversary their place and a meal of equally steeling conflict. The mystery of lawlessness will be unleashed, a dark hand performing miracles of unholy inspiration not unlike those found within the fire-scorched bounds of Washington state based black metal trio Pyrkagion as they present a cryptic tapestry of bestial misdeeds and bleak rituals on this mystifying debut mLP. Flayed into two dramatist serpentine epics ‘The Katechon and the Unending Fire‘ wields a determined whirring, an unearthly and inhumane pulse too considered to land as a stream of consciousness yet bestial enough to present itself as an act of possessed inspiration.

Pyrkagion formed circa 2019 between Z. Wise of Hissing, D. Desmond of Bell Witch and drummer B. Butler who is best known for his work in Infernal Coil with the shared goal of flexing outside of their main projects, picking up different instruments (for the most part) and from the sound of things on this debut EP/tape they intend to develop their own angle upon the avant-garde tradition of orthodox black metal. This suggestion might be worth a shrug since they’ve given little pronounced focus to ‘old school’ black metal grooves, nor have they lent any too-serious hand upon dissonance but there are some moments within these extended works which retain a certain level of sophisticated dynamism that speak to a class level of underground unorthodoxy. Each of the two pieces which make up either side of ‘The Katechon and the Unending Fire‘ split this ~25 minute mLP into cells which represent their own sort of athermancy, one of contemplative chaotic strikes and another that is bestial in its echoing yet semi-melodic voice.

From what I’ve gathered Wise is the main proponent of the guitar compositions and this is believable in the sense that each song manifests as restless in its highly kinetic and often somewhat technical sway, particularly on the most heated portions of “Red Rays of the Starless Eclipse”. Attempting to crack into the greater vision of the rhythm guitar’s path should prove difficult with so much packed into this ~11.5 minute song but only because they’ve clearly given numerous passes at the multi-layered render of this thing making sure that their use of synth is relevant to the atmosphere, their basslines are relevant and clear in their and tuneful intent, and that the dual-writ guitar work acts as the main point of expression. The introduction of guitar melody, developing its first burst from ~3:12 minutes in, amidst the swaying main roots of the piece generate at least one point of repetition to return to as the song storms and grinds along. This helps to avoid a complete collapse into tunneling cacophony, letting the second half of the song breathe even when the second blasted-out rupture returns at around 7:30 minutes in and the skew of the piece begins to twist and malform in the last few minutes.

The opening half is not exactly ‘Dead as Dreams‘ nor is it directly relatable to earlier Watain but knowing both languages well should at least prime the ear for the sinister melodicism and harried battery which makes Pyrkagion tick, the fastest and most frustrated movements on either song tending to be the most preened over and fluid by default. “The Unending Fire” is decidedly blustering, bestial in its echoing dread and faster blazed at in terms of pace as we step over to the second half of the experience. All is fire and triumphal horns n’ hooves ’til we reach the ~five minute mark and Desmond‘s melodic leads begin to develop their longer-form conversation, peaking around 6:03 minutes into the song again helping to define the experience with a tuneful enough turn that all is not lost in our descent. The song is all the more harrowing for this melodious hit but almost too plainly vocalized as an imposing echoing force rasps beneath most of the record. “The Unending Fire” continues to develop within its final third where the leads spike one more time and the synth begins to generate a funeral doom level of crumbling, empyrean texture.

Walking away from ‘The Katechon and the Unending Fire‘ I’d found the second half most memorable even if linear in its build upon the opening half’s energetic output, further illustrative of the ruinous-yet-sentimental feeling I’d gotten from the full listen. Though the effect of the listening experience isn’t an all-out clash the main appeal is this sense that some bestial intellect is developing every moment, awakening in the process of its throughfare. Between the art direction, the ‘ready strong render, and the particularly fiery musicianship on hand Pyrkagion have made a choice first impression with this tape with all signs pointing to larger looming beasthood in the future. A moderately high recommendation.

https://cestrum-nocturnum.bandcamp.com/album/the-katechon-and-the-unending-fire

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