Pyramaze - Legend Of The Bone Carver
Nightmare Records
Powerful and Epic Heavy Metal
11 songs (51'17)
Release year: 2006
Pyramaze, Nightmare Records
Reviewed by Ben
Album of the month

Legend Of The Bone Carver is Pyramaze’s follow up album to the warmly received debut Melancholy Beast. With this release the Danish / North American combo solidify themselves as a force to be reckoned with in the melodic metal community. Since Melancholy Beast was seemingly unanimously praised by critics the world over, the pressure was on to deliver the goods for their second album and have they ever. The dreaded “sophomore slump” is nowhere to be found, from the first song The Birth all the way through the closing notes of Flame And Retribution the band has actually improved over the prior album in every way.

In a surprising move the keyboards on Bone Carver have taken on a domineering role. Using strings and basic piano they set the atmosphere and drive each and every song. They give the album a very epic quality and must be taken notice of. Since this a concept album the right mood must be present for the storyline to work otherwise it will be like countless other cd’s that are stellar, yet the story is unimportant and bothersome to keep track of (Defying The Rules, Rebirth, Odin). Michael Kammeyer has written the concept and he keeps it basic and to the point so the audience can easily understand what is happening in the protagonists world. Most of the story is told in the first person through the eyes of the lead character as he grows up to become the savior of the world. When a new character is introduced (the female victim crying out for help in She Who Summoned Me) a guest musician takes over the role to avoid the confusion from having Lance play ten different characters. As a successful concept album Bone Carver goes through a variety of different emotions through its duration. Each song is a new chapter in the lead figure’s life and each song conveys a different feeling. The Birth is dripping with despair and sorrow, What Lies Beyond is a mixture of raw power supplemented by a yearning to discover who the Bone Carver really is, and Tears Of Hate is balls to the wall aggression and triumph as the battle for the world takes place.

Now, on to the meat of this album, the succulent flesh of what makes Legend Of The Bone Carver so impressive. I’ve already touched base on how Jonah’s keyboards help make the sound so vast and expansive, but what is equally noticeable are the variety of vocals that singer Lance King uses. When Melancholy Beast was made it was recorded before Lance was in the band so Michael wasn’t able to write the songs based around his voice. Here his singing wraps around the individual tracks and injects each song with a vital energy that not only drips of emotion but conveys the feelings of the Bone Carver perfectly. Bring Back Life even has a slight folky melody line in the first verse that is a little surprising. For the first time Pyramaze uses a female vocalist by the name of Christina Oberg to perform a duet with Lance during the ballad of the album, She Who Summoned Me. This is a good example of a band not afraid to experiment with their sound this early in their career. Looking through the booklet you will notice that there is a new blond haired lead guitarist by the name of Toke. No offense to Michael, but Toke is a brilliant lead player and the guitar solos on Bone Carver are miles above the leads on the debut. Toke has a flashy style of playing that gives his solos a nice arena rock feel and this meshes with the Pyramaze sound beautifully. In The Birth the finale solo sounds like a soaring tribute to Randy Rhoads and the scorcher in What Lies Beyond would make Kai Hansen jealous. Toke is a terrific asset to the band and has finally made them a complete unit. Legend Of The Bone Carver is definitely an album one should put on their “must have” list. The combination of power, speed, melody, intelligence, and emotion makes this a heavyweight contender for one of the top albums of 2006.

Killing Songs :
What Lies Beyond, Souls In Pain, Tears Of Hate, Flame And Retribution
Ben quoted 95 / 100
Other albums by Pyramaze that we have reviewed:
Pyramaze - Epitaph reviewed by Ben and quoted 80 / 100
Pyramaze - Contingent reviewed by Joel and quoted 92 / 100
Pyramaze - Disciples Of The Sun reviewed by Joel and quoted 90 / 100
Pyramaze - Immortal reviewed by Ben and quoted 95 / 100
Pyramaze - Melancholy Beast reviewed by Ben and quoted 97 / 100
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