Russia - not the most popular country on earth, currently! Yet the home of plenty a denizen of underground metallic goodness, and Saint Petersburg-based Pyre are no different, having been in existence since 2011 with three full-lengths released to date. You can see why Osmose snapped them up; Where Obscurity Sways shows off a mature, confident band with instrumental and songwriting chops to spare. Members have played in multiple other local projects and have plenty of influence from classic Swedish death without outright copying it or playing what has become known as Entombedcore - actually, there's little if any core to be found here at all. Instead, the band play a gloom-infused form of death metal that's heavy on the personality and technicality without sacrificing that essential identity, that sense of death metal style that makes for songs that induce headbanging and horn-throwing.

As ever with death metal that doesn't essentially do anything different than countless others, you have to focus on the details to appreciate their mastery, and Pyre have a set of solid musicians who more than have the minutiae covered. Not least guitarists Roman and Fred, who can do both Entombed-esque melody and Asphyxian doomdeath - From the Stygian Depths alone showing both off well. Drummer Oleg especially has chops for days, showing off a diverse and interesting battery throughout and with plenty of moments to appreciate. You can sell this band in a number of ways, from Dismembery rumblings to those like Murderous Transcendence where Death comparisons begin to creep in thanks to the multiple impressive lead guitar expressions of personality.

Be it the melodic widdling that opens Domains of the Nameless Rites before kicking into classic Swedeath speed or the atmospheric gloom of Pestilential Fumes, this doesn't feel like an album from 2025, but from 30 years earlier in the best of ways. This is even down to the admittedly entirely superfluous interludes Wandering... and Descending... that are entirely skippable but also shows that the band have a little imagination and like to show off the more evocative side of death metal. It's not exactly a long album at just over thirty-five minutes long, yet there's not a bad or weak track present and is exactly long enough for the impact that it needs to have. Death metal for fans, by fans.