UMUR
"System of the Animal" is the 2nd full-length studio album by US, New York based death metal act Pyrexia. The album was released through Serious Entertainment in 1997. Pyrexia formed in 1990 and released their debut full-length studio album "Sermon of Mockery" in 1993. There have been several lineup changes since the debut album, and it´s actually an almost completely different lineup who recorded "System of the Animal" to the lineup who recorded "Sermon of Mockery (1993)". Only Chris Basile remains from the original lineup, and he has switched from bass to guitar.
Stylistically the brutal, technical, and groove laden (hardcore influenced) death metal style of "Sermon of Mockery (1993)" is continued on "System of the Animal". There is generally more focus on crushingly brutal grooves than on the debut album, but there are still loads of old school death metal brutality to be found here too. "System of the Animal" is a rhythmically varied release, so in addition to the brick heavy groove laden riffs and rhythms, Pyrexia also deliver mid-paced death metal parts and death grinding blast beats. The vocals are brutal and quite aggressive growling, which are occasionally complimented by a slightly higher pitched aggressive growling style.
It´s an incredibly intense release where the brutality factor is turned up to maximum. The tracks aren´t that different in style, and they aren´t initially easy to tell apart, so to my ears a bit more variation between tracks, could have made "System of the Animal" and even better release. As it is the 8 track, 23:45 minutes long album is pretty much over before it began, so in that respect the relatively one-dimensional musical style isn´t that much of an issue, but had the album been any longer, a bit more variation in the songwriting would have been necessary.
"System of the Animal" is well produced, featuring a raw, brutal, and powerful sounding production, which suits the music perfectly. So upon conclusion it´s a high quality death metal release and a great sophomore album by Pyrexia. Pyrexia aren´t often mentioned when speaking of US East coast death metal, where people typically mention Suffocation, Immolation, and Incantation, as the big three, and while all three mentioned artists fully deserve their legendary status, Pyrexia brought something else to the scene, which deserves praise too. Their focus on brutal hardcore influenced grooves (not completely unlike a contemporary act like Dying Fetus) weren´t exactly the order of the day back then, but would by the end of the 90s and early 00s become a trademark of many deathcore releases, and in that respect Pyrexia should probably be counted among the forefathers of that style, although they themselves aren´t really a deathcore act. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.