Pyramid Mass’s new album Monolith is perfectly named! After just one listen, y’all will have visions of dinosaurs and the world that they ruled! This band’s riffs are captivating and HUGE AF. I love the depths of sonic empathy that they are able to convey in their songs. Pyramid Mass’s track “Offering” is just that — an offering to the sonic gods that rule the underground! They are able to weave Doom, Space Rock, Noise Rock, and Killer Grooves into their own universe of radness. We are super stoked to share with y’all Pyramid Mass’s album Monolith in full below!
We thought we were Doubtfire, going into it. It wasn’t realized until after the record was finished, that our whole sound had shifted and rejuvenated as something else entirely. We took that as a sign that the name had run its course and the time to change was now. Nick brought it up. It wasn’t his first time either, but this time it felt right to Jerry and I, and the agreement was made.
PYRAMID MASS isn’t about killing pyramids or worshiping them, nor is it a place or a reference to anything evil. These lyrics are about doing everything possible as individuals to improve existence for everything, everyone, and expressing creativity along the way. Some songs shed light on negative themes, yes. This is a way to bring attention to the problem instead of letting it thrive behind a shroud of ignorance and or acceptance.
It’s about the music. Lyrics are important, obviously, but we write them to follow. So much so that we realized the album needed more after the initial recording schedule. So, we went back to our good friend Dave Watkins to capture more vocals and send them over to Kevin to mix in, thus completing the tracking phase.
Tracking this album was overall smooth and fast. I probably had the most “hangups,” but I did that to myself. As a drummer having a lot of vintage gear that I’ve maintained myself, and using a bigger set up than I’m used to. I wanted to have more options available to thus create more dynamics. The big changes I made that I don’t normally use were the triple kick pedals and the additional snare. The first double kick pedal was an Iron Cobra attached to my 1980’s 22” maple Ludwig that I had muffled for speed and clarity. Then, I used half of a second Iron Cobra double kick pedal and attached it to Jake’s vintage 24” maple Ludwig that I left without muffling to ring out for the slower parts. Finally I used a 13” Dixon piccolo for my high end snare to accompany my 90’s 14” Ludwig Custom snare. For an eerie effect I tracked some baoding balls at the beginning of “Eternal Plane” and a squeaky coffee can in the middle of “offerings.” Otherwise my kit includes 70s-80s shells as a standard 5 piece. 70’s 12” & 13” and 80’s 16” & 22.” Cymbals Include 15” Zildjian Mastersound hi hats, 17” Paiste crash, 18” Zildjian avedis crash, 1970s 20” Paiste china, 20” Zildjian A custom, 1970s 22” Paiste Rude Power ride, and the monstrous 24” Paiste Eclipse Mega Power ride that got some solo tracking with the mallets.
Matt Wild (drums)
