When some people are in a bad spot and need cash quick they do unspeakable acts just to survive. Some people rob, some people prostitute themselves, some people sell drugs. When I’m in a bad spot I do something much much worse; I became Pyrexia’s webmaster. I know, I know, I’m not proud of what I did and it’s something I struggle with every day, but there you have it.

Every week I’d get another e-mail regarding updates needing to be done to the site. Every one of them were filled with references to "Rexcore" and "Rex" this and "Rex" that leaving me the impression that these guys are a bunch of fucking clowns. Every time I’d read one of these e-mails I’d laugh hysterically then instantly feel very very dirty.

I finally decided to tell them to fuck themselves after they asked me to the layout for the booklet for Cruelty Beyond Submission which featured artwork by the horrendously overrated and completely shit cover artist Jonzig. Try as I may to make something worthwhile out of that worthless turd’s artwork it still looked awful and I refused to have my name associated with such a horrendous product. It also didn’t help that the band were so full of themselves that they’d demanded I include a "Rexgirl of the Month" to the website. With that I said my fuck yous and moved on, hoping to never hear from this band again.

Skip forward a few years and I check my po box and what do I find? A promotional copy of Pyrexia’s Age of the Wicked staring up at me like that stray nugget of poop that just refuses to stay flushed. To be fair, there was a time when I considered Pyrexia to be a decent band with the release of their Liturgy of Impurity demo and their Sermon of Mockery full length but that time was 15 years ago. While those albums were decent, not great, but pretty good Suffocation-worship brutal death metal act, the next 15 years would see the band transform into a hardcore-friendly bundle of shit before eventually transforming again into the band they are today.

Today Pyrexia are a brutal death metal act with a heavy hardcore influence. The only remaining member from the early years of Pyrexia is Chris Basile, the rest of today’s line-up consists of former Insatanity drummer Justin Dipinto and a couple of other guys you’ve never heard of before. This new line-up creates music that is a strange blend of the band’s early Suffocation-styled brutal death metal and the band’s late-90s hardcore-wanna be stylings. The album starts out with a kiss to the ass of Deeds of Flesh for taking pity on the band and signing them to their Unique Leader Records as Pyrexia copy the band’s trademark riff and blast style for several segments of material, before breaking into hardcore and finally reverting back to brown-nosing Suffocation once again.

The material contained within Age of the Wicked is hit and miss. Some tracks show a great amount of potential and is actually pretty catchy, but the album quickly becomes a snoozefest as the band’s creative limitations quickly become apparent. In essence, this album sounds exactly like the overwhelming majority of the generic brutal death metal you’d expect from a Unique Leader release. The band doesn’t really offer anything new or interesting, it’s just pretty much brutal death metal by numbers with riffs and solos borrowed from every band you can imagine.

If you’re a fan of generic brutal death metal and the mediocre offerings of the bottom feeder bands on Unique Leader like Brutus, Disavowed, Pyaemia, Severed Savior and Vile then Age of the Wicked will satisfy your craving for a dripping shit sandwich. If, however, you’re looking for something with a bit more substance then avoid this album like the fucking plague.

Written By: Teufel