Asylum Pyre – Call Me Inhuman (Holy Trinity Power Metal for Those Who LARP)
Damn it if I don’t like this. Most power metal submissions I receive, well make that probably 99% of them, are passed upon. I can recall maybe 3 or 4 bands tops of this style that we’ve covered over the past decade. No joke. The power metal crowd can yell all it wants, you’re all cheesy as shit! Hard to take seriously a bunch of adults playing AD&D (1st ed.) metal who don’t even LARP! Asylum Pyre, however, are not of this variety. We have here not one reference to a chromatic dragon, not one reference to Roll20, nothing. In a world of cliché fantasy overtones, Asylum Pyre are the Avalon Hill gamers at the lone table at the con, or better yet the Rifts players. If you get that reference you already love them. If not, break out of that stereotyped box and get some real power (also metal)!
Power metal only succeeds when it’s like this. First off, the band needs to have actual musicians in it, not cosplayers. Second, absolutely need a commanding lead, otherwise it’s not going to happen. For all the sickening solos that bend like a level 50 Illusionist making their own spells, for all the riffs calling you to battle, it won’t matter without that. Third, you need a good keyboardist who understands how to fit with the rest of the music, sometimes necessarily in the background. This holy trinity of true power metal is what you’re going to find in Call Me Inhuman. I won’t bother with the rest of the title, it’s some fifth part of some epic or some shit, who cares? What I care about is Asylum Pyre have it all. Lead Oxy Hart kills it. She’ll have you change political allegiance, probably national allegiance. She’ll have you crafting weapons on the forge for a battle you’re not even sure is ever going to happen. She’ll have you prepping for the doomsday army of the coming apocalypse you’ll never even see. This is true power. Take notes, the rest of you, and do it like this next time. Tons of spectacular twists and turns. A true elitist’s form of the art.
Written by Stanley, Devourer of Souls
Asylum Pyre – Call Me Inhuman
Ellie Promotion
Cover Art: Mickey Mythrid
4.7 / 5
