Review: “When Society Crumbles” by Pyrrhic Salvation

“I dedicate this release to my late cousin Caleb James Flores. Not a day has gone by that I don’t think of you! Rest in power man! This wouldn’t have nearly the meaning to me if not for you. Hold the ones you care for close, play hard, love hard, you never know how long we’re here for, life is already too damn short and none of us make it out alive” ~ Michael Altobello, guitars

The origins of Pyrrhic Salvation trace back to 2009 and a project called Stillborn Salvation for which guitarist Michael Altobello wrote in the key of Progressive Death Metal with dissonance. The story goes that when he found bassist and drummer Sagar Nadgir and vocalist Chrisom Infernium (Torture Ascendancy, Veilburner), the trio found that their cryptic writings were more complex and leaned towards a discordant Blackened Death Metal sound. That style shift lead to the band taking another name and in 2022 they unveiled debut EP “Manifestum I“. A year later Infernium exited stage left to be replaced by Shawn Ferrell. For their second burnt offering Altobello developed the concept of a fifteen minute framework of ideas with repeating motifs and musical themes to explore societal collapse, humanity’s potential and the inevitability of self-destruction. That framework then became the three movements of “When Society Crumbles“, the band rounding out the record with a standalone track, “Every Last Soul Unmade” which ventures into themes of existential dread and humanity’s moral decay, paving the way for their next magnum opus…

“We like keeping it diverse for influences just as much as we like the idea of a more natural and raw approach to technically oriented music” ~ Sagar Nadgir, bass and drums.

The term avant-garde is one that has always applied to the cryptic writings of Pyrrhic Salvation, their mutual affinity for creating music that is as complex as it is experimental and as disorientating as it is chaotic seemingly knowing no borders or boundaries. They love to incorporate strange fleeting melodies that haunt in nuance and while this record has a little less Black Metal about it than the first one, it’s still as fearfully addictive. “When Society Crumbles Part I: Infrastructure” finds the trio rampaging through technical riffage at breakneck speed against a backdrop of fast and loose percussion with bombastic bass, as if recorded live on the floor in one take. The raw around the edges quality of a demo are present for all to witness, making the record an energetic, edge of the seat thrill ride that keeps you on your toes throughout. Vicious vocals are sporadically placed in the eclectic and eccentric dark melodies, a bloodcurdling elongated scream Ferrell a lethal dose of what he has to offer. Finishing abruptly before the almost flamenco style guitars of the introduction to “When Society Crumbles Part II: Insight” come into play strips away the opportunity for a seamlessness but adds to the disorientating nature of what the trio create. The melody of that introduction plays out underneath the savage vocals with off kilter almost Post-Hardcore vibes before a melodic moment of clarity mid cut. As a track this one is haunting despite being so complicated, the desire to staring into the distance and watch as everything falls apart inescapable.

You can just imagine members of The Dillinger Escape Plan or Between The Buried and Me loving this record because the imagination of it feeds into what they do themselves. The final third of the concept piece is “When Society Crumbles Part III: Inferiority Complexed” which combines bursts of blast beats with lightening riffs, the first solo being surprisingly flamboyant and the second being slightly more controlled. If one were to use a metaphor it would be that this cut it the equivalent of being battered by a storm in the dead of night, the controlled chaos of nature fitting the pattern of what this band create. Make no mistake, the roots of this nightmarish music are indeed in Black Metal and Scandinavia, something which shines through in their rich melodies and hits home vocally particularly in final cut “Every Last Soul Unmade“. A barbed and violently turbulent final offering, this one is actually a minute longer than the conjoined concept cuts and in some regards feels like an audition for the Sumerian Records Summer Slaughter Tour. There is an unescapable air of The Faceless sound in this one, the haunting melody and vicious vocals held captive within a restless and relentless framework what is so loose it could never hold a prisoner. It’s impossible for the human brain to comprehend everything that is going on here in one spin but if anything over multiple listens this one actually becomes more disorientating and not less… [7.5/10]

Track Listing

1. When Society Crumbles Part I: Infrastructure
2. When Society Crumbles Part II: Insight
3. When Society Crumbles Part III: Inferiority Complexed
4. Every Last Soul Unmade

“When Society Crumbles” by Pyrrhic Salvation is out 14th February 2025 and is available over at bandcamp