Review by Vinny for Pillorian - Obsidian Arc (2017)

Pillorian dropped onto my radar in 2017 with the release of their debut, and sadly only release, Obsidian Arc. I recall it was well spoken of amongst internet peers of the time, and it retained at least one play a year in the ensuing nine-year period with me. Apparently, somebody in Pillorian said something that was deemed unsavoury by the rest of the band and so they split up in 2019. I have no idea what the comment/s were and nor do I care to find out, I only mention the incident to provide context of the band being no more despite releasing such a promising debut. Hailing from the hotbed of metal music that is Portland, Oregon, the band consisted of Agalloch’s John Haughm on vocals and guitars, bassist/guitarist Stephen Parker and former Uada drummer Trevor Matthews. Eisenwald records recently had a sale, I needed some more vinyl and Obsidian Arc got nabbed, putting it onto my “to review” pile.

It is important to say that I have little time for Agalloch. I find pretty much anything that they have done to be dull and over-indulgent. I am aware that places me in a minority, but nonetheless, it is the truth. Whilst I cannot say that Pillorian stray miles away from the Agalloch template (the second half of the album at times gets uncomfortably close in fact), they do possess enough nihilistic misanthropy to present as a black metal band that are much more in the boundaries of appeal for me. The themes here do speak to my general derisory view of humanity and my particular interest in societal collapse, although the depth does get a little too reflective at times for me. Yet, as perhaps you would expect, everything is written to a high standard. Song structures are robust and the arrangement is thought through as opposed to just a scattergun approach to proceedings. The instrumentation is of a very high standard, and the production is professional if not perhaps a little too clean at times for a black metal record.

Genres are explored here alongside sub-genres, and these explorations do wander outside of metal altogether at some points with post-punk vibes appearing to my ears. In the main however, you have a combination of atmospheric black metal with elements of doom thrown in for interesting measure which I have seen noted in an online review as resulting in “easy listening black metal”. That seems a tad of a stretch for me, especially given the very negative tones of the themes of the record, yet this is not a record for fans of raw bm by any means.

As I understand it, Agalloch was on hiatus (or believed gone for good) when this album got released, following a relatively poorly received final record from them. I have no knowledge of that album to provide any comparison and given this is a different band also, it would seem unfair to try and draw any. Taken on individual merit, Obsidian Arc is finely crafted as a black metal record that is unafraid of a little exploration. More importantly, the members have the maturity and ability to carry that experimentation off and make the record a success.