Back in 2017, Houston post-metal project Pyreship released their first album (The Liars Bend Low). It was a brooding and bruising introduction to the band’s atmospheric compositions. Each track eclipsed 6 minutes as they invoked Kylesa and the rustic doom of Rwake. Then back in 2018 we helped premiere their split album with Forming the Void. Four years have passed, and Pyreship is again ready for launch. Their sophomore record Light is a Barrier steps out of the shadows on April 22nd. Decibel Magazine is thrilled to exclusively share the album in it’s entirety a few days early on 420.
From the album’s first whisper of static, Light is a Barrier creates a vast world for the listener. It’s pensive and powerful, rewarding deep listening. Like their debut, the compositions stretch well past six minutes. “Broken Spire” foreshadows darker impulses even before the sweet poison of Jenny Jordan’s contagious chorus arrives. Steve Smith’s tireless percussion punctuates “Anathema.” The downcast slowcore pummel of “Half Light” offers time for rumination before the heavy menace of “Forest of Spears.”
Engineered by Chris Ryan and and mixed/mastered by Aidan Cunningham, Light is a Barrier is a mood journey. Because of the band’s songwriting ambitions, the album seems to unfold in widescreen. Across nearly ten minutes, closing track “Highborn” embodies the album’s central soul. Jordan’s vocals conspire with the snarls of Pyreship’s dual guitarists (Sam Waters and Cru Jordan Jones). Passages of quiet and stillness feel poignant before the eventual ground-shaking thunder of distortion. The album still ends with a bittersweet blossom of melody, escaping the album’s turbulent gray skies for bluer pastures beyond. In slightly under 40 minutes, Pyreship have created an album that feels both personal and epic in scope.
