This week, Italian heavy rockers Warcoe release their new single ‘Pyramid of Despair’ ahead of their second full-length, to be issued next year. In March, the Pesaro-based three-piece issued their debut album, The Giant’s Dream, and “Pyramid of Despair” also serves as a quick follow-up to that, building on the tonal grit and loosely cultish melodymaking fostered there, their fuzz light in the high end, the first-name-only three-piece of guitarist/vocalist/songwriter Stefano (also bass on some tracks), bassist Carlo and drummer Francesco finding a space where proto-heavy meets doom but the two aren’t necessarily the same. The single builds on this methodology and demonstrates ready growth in its four-and-a-half-minute push, a Sabbathian central riff brought to a charge like The Sword with an edge of Uncle Acid‘s recording technique and penchant for layering. From a completely different angle, if you told me Green Lung were an influence here, I’d believe it.

What does that mean? It means Warcoe are deceptively multifaceted. Stefano takes an impressive solo late, but even before that, “Pyramid of Despair” digs itself into a niche that opens itself to audience interpretation. It’s not about dogwhistling influences, like, ‘hey man we like Sleep too pretty rad huh?,’ so much as pulling pieces from different sides and mixing them together like taking purple and green and orange and whatever other colors the fuzzy stuff on weed comes in, melting it altogether using technology I won’t pretend to understand, and turning it an ultra-potent brown. I guess maybe they make hash rock? Whatever you want to call it, that stylistic specificity — their thing being their own thing — is set against a straightforward structure of verses and choruses, such that “Pyramid of Despair,” like “Cats Will Follow” or “Thieves, Heretics & Whores” and “Scars Will Remain” from The Giant’s Dream, is catchy while both familiar and not.

The difference, in part, between what Warcoe recorded this year (the single) and last year (the album), is one of confidence. Francesco‘s leads are plenty swaggering throughout The Giant’s Dream, but the vocals on “Pyramid of Despair” feel more confident in their willingness to not directly follow the pattern of the riff during verses, allowing both melody and rhythm to breathe more and giving the sheer heft of “Pyramid of Despair” — something else that would seem to have been upgraded since the record, at least for this song if not whatever else might follow — an appropriate amount of room to make its impact. Which, I’m glad to say, it does. In other words, they’re showing quickly that lessons have been learned coming off their first full-length, and as they head into a sophomore LP sometime in 2023, the portents for that are only encouraging if this is where they’re headed.

Maybe you heard the album, maybe you didn’t. Either way, “Pyramid of Despair” is 4:31 out of your busy day and I don’t think you’ll regret checking it out or I wouldn’t be hosting it. As always, I hope you dig.

Enjoy:

Warcoe, “Pyramid of Despair” track premiere

Warcoe release a new single “Pyramid of Despair” on September 15th. A new album will follow in spring 2023.

Warcoe has released a Ep with Evil noise recordings and a full length “The Giant’s Dream” on Cd with Forbidden Place Records and on tape with Morbid and Miserable Records, and it will be released in Japan on October 19th by Unforgiven Blood Records.

The golden pyramid is standing still
The banished land has a violent past
I’ve travelled so far across the land
I’ve travelled so far across the land

“Pyramid of Despair” was recorded in May 2022 at Avangarage recording studio (Italy) and mastered by sir Craig Thomas (from Preyer, Uk)

Warcoe is:
Stefano: guitars, vocals and songwriting
Carlo: bass
Francesco: drums

Warcoe, The Giant’s Dream (2022)

Warcoe on Bandcamp

Warcoe on Instagram

Warcoe on Facebook

Morbid and Miserable Records on Bandcamp

Forbidden Place Records on Bandcamp

Unforgiven Blood Records on Instagram

Tags: Forbidden Place Records, Italy, Morbid and Miserable Records, Pesaro, Pyramid of Despair, Unforgiven Blood Records, Warcoe, Warcoe Pyramid of Despair

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2022 at 7:31 am and is filed under audiObelisk. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.