RUNNING OUT OF SKIN

"Running Out of Skin" is an EP release by US, Brooklyn, New York based extreme metal act Pyrrhon. The EP was released through PRC Music in March 2016. Pyrrhon was formed in 2008 and released their debut full-length studio album "An Excellent Servant but a Terrible Master" in 2011. The band´s sophomore studio album "The Mother of Virtues" emerged in 2014, and they followed that album up with the "Growth Without End" EP in 2015.

"Running Out of Skin" features 4 tracks and a full playing time of 16:25 minutes. Stylistically the material is in a technical, very extreme, chaotic, and dissonant sounding extreme metal style. Pyrrhon may at one point have been rooted in death metal, but while this certainly is extreme, there are actually very few death metal traits left in the band´s music on "Running Out of Skin". The vocals are for example not growling, but rather a very extreme and distorted raw type of shouting. Pyrrhon suck you into their noisy and chaotic extreme metal universe, which feels both unpleasant and almost claustrophobic yet intriguing. At times it almost sounds like free-form avant garde, which may not be as far from the truth as it sounds, as the material on "Running Out of Skin" was recorded live in the studio. I´d be interested to hear how much of the music was planned ahead, and if any sections were improvised.

The band are arguably very well playing and obviously know how to handle their instruments, but the extremety of the material and what appears to be floating structures are probably going to be an obstacle for some. Personally I find "Running Out of Skin" more intriguing than enjoyable, but if you think you can enjoy this type of extreme experiment, you´re certainly in for a wild ride with this release. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.