Like an angry Boston Yeti, the trio Black Pyramid emerges with their recently reviewed self-titled full-length debut. Part of MeteorCity‘s ongoing effort to rejuvenate the allegedly-dormant American stoner movement, Black Pyramid are a monument built in honor of Sleep, weaving tales of monsters, legends and wildebeests that match the epic scope of their riffs and crashes. Marked by the gut-punch low end of bassist Gein, they’re the emphasis of what people mean when they talk about The Heavy.

And yet, they’re just getting started. They still have that “new band” smell. Guitarist/vocalist Andy Beresky (a colleague in writing for StonerRock.com) delivers his lyrics with a fresh sense of urgency propelled by Clay Neely‘s drumming. The response to their demo and 7″ was such that their name spread even faster than their music. A growing legend? Perhaps. If the perception of the band became like that of giant sasquatch hiding in the forest waiting to launch an attack on hapless campers, it could only be too fitting.

Beresky (the fastest gun in the east when it comes to sending back his answers) fielded some questions about his past in Palace in Thunderland, the forming of Black Pyramid, signing to MeteorCity and the stoner scene in general as it stands today. Get your read on after el jumpo (I don’t speak Spanish).

Describe the first time you heard Sleep. Feel free to wax poetic.

I’m not going to get too poetic, as the first time I heard them was covering a Black Sabbath tune. It was their cover of “Snowblind” on the Masters of Misery comp. Earache had put out. What impressed me was how faithful to the original it was, and yet how they simultaneously managed to inject the nuances of each of their playing styles. I played that track over and over, it was mesmerizing. Then I went out and had a hell of a time finding their albums, as we didn’t have that many cool music stores in Western Mass that had a great selection. Finally, I found it at this one place, Dynamite Records, where they had a guy who consigned usually older psych, prog, and kraut stuff from the ?60s and ?70s. He had a great selection, I was picking through it, and there was Sleep?s Holy Mountain. Of course, with the consignment prices, I paid $20 for it. I loved it, I was really getting into the whole Sabbath sound in 1994, especially The Obsessed and Trouble, but this was different. I had bought Kyuss‘ Blues for the Red Sun and Monster Magnet‘s Spine of God back in 1992, and I immediately recognized that Sleep was forging a very comfortable place for themselves between the two styles…

What happened to bring about the demise of Palace in Thunderland? You went through a lot of members over the years. Was it just general instability?

Oh man, it was a lot of things really. It was a real shame, we had a lot of bad luck over the years with members, particularly finding drummers who could play this kind of stuff, as it was virtually unknown in these parts. We were gigging as early as 2000, and it was too jammy for the metal crowd and too metal for the jammy crowd, so we didn’t really fit in out here at first, I mean, no one was doing this shit, and no drummers really wanted to play it. So when we lost a drummer, it meant an extended hiatus. It was always problems with drummers. Monte [Newman, guitar] quit once in the early years, sold all his gear, but a couple months later he bought new gear, even though it was basically all the same stuff, and he was back. Adam [Abrams, bass] was there from the beginning until the end. And I mean the very beginning, jamming and writing in my apartment in Holyoke.

It was a shame about the breakup, and this is the first time I’m even really talking about it. We were finally getting some success, we could draw a crowd in Northampton, we were getting good shows and good responses in Boston, but we’d struggled for so long, there was just so much internal tension. A lot of it was me, I just noticed whenever we got anything going, something bad happened and we stalled out. My rig would get stolen, or a drummer would get institutionalized, and then we were dead in the water again. We had dumped so much money into this, and we were all fucking weirdos, so there was a lot of stress and a lot of anger at times. I felt we needed to get something finally released and then tour behind it, and if we couldn’t do that, then forget it. We had a full album’s worth of material recorded that looked like no one wanted to release it, because truthfully it had its flaws, and I was working shit jobs so I could work around everyone’s schedules, and I couldn’t take it. I was threatening to quit, I was half hearted about practicing and even writing sometimes. We made a good shot at the end, the plan was to rerecord stuff from our first album that was never properly pressed and never really released, and then self-release 100 copies and hit the road. It didn’t happen, the two warm up shows for the tour were drama-filled disasters, the tour itinerary was a mess, the day before we were supposed to leave the trailer for the van wasn’t even rented yet, due to a blowout at our last show that ended with me saying I wanted to finish this tour then do Palace as a side-project and start a new band, and they didn’t take that too well, so they basically canceled the tour on the day we were supposed to leave, without telling me.

When I found out, I called up Monte and said, “I’m done.” Not in those words, and not as nicely, and that led to another blowout which was finally resolved with taking a hiatus to recoup, cool our jets, and plan a new strategy. Well, my strategy was to start a new band during the hiatus. Then I called Monte and told him I needed to get my gear from the space, and that was it. It was getting really toxic at the end, for everyone, something had to give, and I’m just happy it did give before we all hated each other, because Monte and Adam are two of my oldest and closest friends. I mean, the last show we ever played, we did our favorite cover, Pink Floyd‘s “Echoes,? and it was fucking mean, like we all wanted to tear each other’s eyes out. That’s not how you generally play that song, we always did it heavy, but not hateful.

Was there something different you wanted to do with Black Pyramid? Did you have mission in mind for the band at first or did you wait to see what kind of sound developed?

A lot of it was born out of the pain and anger over how Palace finally melted down at the end. If anything positive came out of how badly things went down at the end, and trust me, I didn’t tell you even half of the story, it was that I just had so much pent up negative emotion inside of me, and writing brand new material was a way to get it out. I wanted it to be heavier, more metal and doom, I knew that. When I went to write the songs, I sat down and listened to High on Fire, Electric Wizard, Eyehategod, Sleep, and Acid King for nine hours straight before I played a single fucking note. Palace didn’t have the background to play that kind of material, Adam was rooted in psych rock, Monte was more of a classic rock guy. The funny thing was, I didn’t know if I could write it either. So after my marathon listening session, the next day I sat down, tuned the guitar down a step further than the Palace tuning, to where I really was digging the sound, grabbed some beers, and wrote out “Visions of Gehenna,? “Mirror Messiah,? and “No Life King” in basically one sitting, along with about half of both “Wintermute” and “Caravan.”

How was the process getting the band together? Is the dynamic different for you playing in a trio as opposed to a four-piece?

It’s a funny story, after I wrote those tunes, I put up an ad on Stonerrock.com in the “musician finder” section, that was really blunt and angry, because I was still angry about Palace. I listed the influences as the bands that I already listed above, plus beer as an influence. Of course no one responded, but there was this kid in Connecticut who wanted to start something similar, a doom/sludge band, and Clay [Neely, drums] responded to it. I responded too, then noticed Clay was from Northampton, and we both said, “why the fuck would we want to go to Connecticut then?” We talked on phone, met for drinks, and he was wearing a Hawkwind shirt that I owned, so I knew we were on the same page. After some small chat, I asked him, “What current band is really doing it for you?” He said, “Definitely High on Fire.” And I was thinking right there, yup, this collaboration is going to work just fine.

We jammed in my garage over a 30 pack, and there was definite chemistry, it was coming together, and it was good. Kids were riding their bikes to stand at the end of my driveway and listen to us practice. We actually auditioned bassists, put up an ad, got some responses, and got a few people who weren’t going to work. One guy showed up, pulled out his bass, and it was huge! I asked him, ?Is that a six string?” He replied, “Actually, it’s a seven.” Well, obviously right from the start we weren’t on the same page. Eric, our first bassist, was recommended to me by a friend, showed up with a ton of amps and a clue about where we were coming from, so it was obvious that this was going to work much better. After a few months, not so much, but Clay played in another band with Gein and we ended up getting him to take over on bass.

As far as a power trio versus a four piece, I had played in both in the past. I liked the more orchestrated and textural parts two guitars could achieve, along with dueling and harmonized leads, but if you look at the bands I was initially drawing a lot of inspiration from, all of them are three pieces, so I was really sold on that idea. The biggest thing was I needed to beef up my leads, so I actually had to practice a lot, because Monte played all the leads in Palace.

How has your vocal style developed? When you were making the self-titled, did you record the vocals and guitar at the same time? What was the recording process like in general?

That’s a good question, I’m really not sure. When I sang in past projects, I was more going for a cleaner croon, even though it came out sounding like a more nasally version of Ozzy. I had tried some gruffer vocals, admittedly with mixed results. The one thing I loved was this section of a Palace in Thunderland song, ?To Mock a Killingbird.? It had this bridge where every time I heard it back, I was like, “Man, that’s the heaviest shit I’ve ever sang.” Don’t know how I harnessed it at the time, but I couldn’t hear myself very well practicing these songs in the garage, but as soon as Clay pushed play and I heard the vocals I’d recorded on the demos, bam! There is was again! It seems now it’s just a matter of nailing the rhythms, really getting each syllable and beat accented just right, and also writing the lyrics with this in mind, and I can do that now, but before it was subconscious.

As far as recording, no I don’t record the vocals and guitar at the same time, I like to be able to concentrate on each one separately and really nail all the little nuances. We’re all kind of perfectionists in the studio. When the final arrangement for the song is done, we practice it, Clay lays down the drums, I come in and do the rhythm guitars, Gein lays down the bass, then I come back and do the overdubs and the solos. I now drink tea made from cocoa leaves when I track the solos, I find it helps me concentrate. I don’t know what Clay and Gein do to concentrate, because I’m not there. Since Clay engineers, he’s the only one there for all of the sessions.

Last come the vocals. I like to sing over the otherwise finished product. We’re trying different things now in the studio, but that was how the album was done.

Songs about beasts: Are they a metaphor for real life or just stories to tell? Did you know coming into the band that?s what you wanted to sing about?

I hate to get into Palace in Thunderland once again, but you opened that box up man…

In Palace, I wrote lyrics that were definitely metaphors for real things that were happening in our lives. No one really knew that at first, but one day Monte needed a copy of the lyrics so that he could come up with the backup vocals for the Apostles of Silence album, and he called me up a couple hours later saying, “Holy shit, dude, these lyrics are about real things, there’s stuff in here that relates to this and that and…” Yeah, he figured it out.

With Black Pyramid, I wanted to get away from that, I wanted it to be purely fictional. I like to read collections of short stories before I go to sleep, always have. When I was little, it was Grimm’s Fairy Tales, Arthurian Legends, and Greek myths. Now I’ll sometimes read sci-fi and fantasy collections of short stories, all by different authors. That’s what I wanted the album to be like, a collection of songs that bore more resemblance to fictional stories. I had no idea that was what I wanted to sing about, it just happened. With the first three songs, I just wrote down the first line of lyrics that popped into my head, and based the rest around that. Usually, once the lyrics start to take form, I’m using my knowledge of preexisting stories to shape how the song is going to go. “No Life King,? for example, was a phrase I’d read in a comic book used to describe a powerful vampire who commanded hoards of undead, so when the lyrics started to go in that direction, I already had ideas to work with, but even with preexisting stories, I’m interpreting them my own way and adding my own touches. There was no rhyme or reason at first, but then I liked how that was working out, so when it was time for the album, same approach.

Were you surprised by the response to EP? How did you end up signing to MeteorCity to release the album?

I was more surprised by the response to the demo. We had been offered some good shows from contacts I had, even though they’d never heard us and we didn’t even have a name yet! ?The promoters wanted us to have a MySpace so they could promote us, because we’d literally been jamming a month, and we’d just got Eric on bass and he’d played with us once. So Clay and I went to his studio to cut some rough demos so we could put them on a MySpace, and also to help Eric learn the songs on bass. I actually played the bass on the demo, just so it was there. The day after we put up the MySpace, we start getting offers from labels. That blew my mind. One guy is asking to hear the rest of our stuff so he can tell what direction we’re going to go in. Well, we’ve only got the three songs!

Jelle was the most passionate, he really wanted to release those demo tracks for the new record company he was starting, which turned out to be Electric Earth. He didn’t let up, but we wanted to use those tracks for the album, so we finally said we’d rerecord ?Visions? and give him a new track, as ?Caravan? was part of our live set at that point. And then, we had people emailing us asking for copies of the demo, and we’d never intended to press it! It was rough, Eric wasn’t on it, and it was just to have something out there. We even had distros asking for multiple copies to sell in their stores, and that was totally unexpected as well. So we pressed a couple hundred copies ourselves, and right before the album dropped, we sold out of them.

I guess the critical response to the 7″ was unexpected. The demo didn’t get many reviews, but they were fairly positive, and we knew people wanted the demo, but with the EP, some of the things people were saying, it was something else to us. Totally out of the blue. A big part of that was how great of a job and how much work Jelle put in promoting it, working with him and Electric Earth has been a dream come true…

The story with MeteorCity is this — we recorded the album, Electric Earth wanted to put out the vinyl, and we were definitely cool with that, but we wanted to obviously have a CD release as well, and Jelle was only interested in vinyl. We had some offers, and finally it was John Pegoraro from StonerRock who suggested talking to Dan Beland about having MeteorCity put it out. I didn’t have much direct contact with him Dan, even though I worked for StonerRock.com, I mostly dealt with John, as he’s the editor, and he deals with Dan. But I knew that Dan was a stand up guy and that MeteorCity had released some of my favorite albums ever over the years. So, I sent Dan an email with mp3’s of the tracks, and asked if he’d be interested in releasing the album. I got no response for awhile, and seriously, I was about five minutes from going with another label we were talking to about releasing it. It was like the day after Christmas, I was at my parents? and then I get an email from Dan saying he loves the album, and there’s a contract attached! So right there, another Christmas present, because his offer was going to work out a lot better for our needs, and MeteorCity was already working with Electric Earth on the Elder LP, so no problems there, and man were we psyched…

As a writer for StonerRock.com, what are your thoughts on stoner underground in general as it is today?

Well, way to put me on the spot… First off, I like the diversity of what has come to be known as “stoner rock” in 2009. I really don’t think stoner rock is really a sound anymore, it’s more about a collection of like-minded bands and individuals whose sounds may be diverse, but they have common elements and common goals. It’s not like 1999 where stoner rock was seen as a bunch of bands who all had the same influences, where they were all listening to Kyuss, Fu Manchu, Monster Magnet, etc. The genre, if it even could be said to still exist, has expanded so much that you’ve got bands on one end of the spectrum such as Ocean doing this slow, huge, textural doom, and then you’ve got High on Fire embracing thrash elements and faster tempos. On paper, these bands couldn’t be further apart, and yet they share a common fan base and would do perfectly well on a bill together. Seeing Nachtmystium and Pentagram touring together, that’s what this genre is all about to me.

Secondly, I like how bands are taking it further and further, it’s not just Kyuss clones anymore, you’ve got bands starting with the core influences and going off the deep end with incorporating Amon D??l II and krautrock into the mix, then you have others embracing NWOBHM bands. It’s getting more creative, and even bands like Truckfighters, who do have that classic “desert” sound, are taking it to new places.

Thirdly, the people involved, the bands and the fans, are some of the greatest in the world, hooking up shows for one another, buying the vinyl, just going the extra yard…

What is the BBQ of Blood? Any other plans show-wise before Stoner Hands of Doom in the fall?

Oh, the BBQ of Blood rules! It’s a party the guys from the GASPetc.com webzine puts on every year. It’s a themed party that combines metal and horror, so obviously we fit right in. I’m really psyched because Matt who used to be in Warhorse, I met him there last year, and this year we’re playing with his new band, Faces of Bayon. It’s also the day before my birthday, and we’re playing Presley‘s last show ever in Boston later that night. Those guys are all my boys, so it’s going to be a helluva day. Other plans, well, we’re going to try to make it out to Chicago in the fall, and also do the east coast down to Georgia. We’ll see what happens after that, but those are the current plans, plus we’ll keep playing regionally in the northeast.

Is there new Black Pyramid material in the works, maybe even just ideas for new songs? Do you have an idea where you want to take the band?s sound for the next album or something in particular you want to do musically next time around?

Oh yeah, there’s a ton of material in the works. We’re currently recording a split EP with Old One, and I feel badly because we’ve been dragging on it a bit trying to get everything perfect, but I think once people hear the material it’s going to make it all worthwhile. It’s two songs, one is another battle chant type number in the vein of ?No Life King,? but it’s also an epic. It’s not short, and we’re taking it to new and different places. The chorus is total Celtic Frost worship, and it’s a cool story too. The other song, well, let’s just say it’s our ?Dopesmoker,? because we’re going to get bagged right off the bat because at first it may sound a bit like that tune, but once again, it’s going to new places and I’m not going to ruin the surprise except to say that I referenced “Echoes” earlier in this interview, and it’s got a part that’s reminiscent of that. I’m doing some keyboards on that part for the first time with Black Pyramid. We’re trying to get some of our proggier tendencies out of our system, and we probably won’t do a song this long again for awhile, because it’s a lot of work to get everything right.

I don’t really know how to explain the material for the next album, it’s more of the same basic concepts and big riffs, the major difference is the melodies are stranger, a bit more off kilter at times, and darker at other times. I’d say based on what I’ve been listening to, it’s also going to turn out more psychedelic. Maybe I’ll try for more of a single story with the lyrics, we’ll see.

We’re hoping to start recording it in the early winter, because in the northeast, touring in the winter sucks, and holing up in a studio during the summer sucks. Logically, the thing to do is hole up in the studio during the winter.

Any closing words or other details you want to spill?

Man, I’m really obsessed with 13th Floor Elevators right now, my friend got the 10 disc box set, and I just read a book on them, and we’re just going apeshit listening to all the unreleased material. Clay and Gein are making fun of me, because in my dreams every night, Roky Erickson is following me around. It’s really freaky, I’ll be having this awesome dream about seeing these knights fight with maces on horseback, and then they ask me to join in, and I look down and I’m in full armor… then I look back, and Roky‘s behind me, and I’m just thinking, “How the hell am I supposed to go into battle with Roky?” I’m wired on late night caffeine because I don’t want to go to sleep and deal with Roky right now, so if I’m talking your ear off, that’s why…

Eh, you don’t want to hear about how wacky I am though, you probably figured it out from the rest of the interview. I’d like to just thank everyone, the people like yourself who help get the word out there, and also all the fans who have bought the album and support us at shows. Respect to you all.

Black Pyramid on MySpace

MeteorCity

Tags: Black Pyramid, Boston, MeteorCity

This entry was posted on Monday, June 29th, 2009 at 3:33 pm and is filed under Features. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.