Maserati – Pyramid Of The Sun Album Review

Talk about a bittersweet release. The first thing I thought of when I put the new Maserati album on was the unfortunate death of their old drummer Jerry Fuchs. So, Pyramid Of The Sun seems like it was his last testament of sorts. A large part of this is because Fuchs had a very distinct drumming style throughout all the material he worked with, his style almost single handedly puts the funk into the sound.

Take the title track, which opens with a simple grooving guitar line over Fuchs’ laying down a simple, yet dancey drum beat. The guitars fade in and fade out on each side, but at all times, it is Fuchs who is in control. He pushes the song as the rest of the band builds to new and interesting heights. “We Got The System To Fight The System” pushes the band into a more psych-influenced boundary, with quick drumming and quick guitar picking to really fuel the speed. Whereas most post-rock bands are more interested in building up to grand crescendos, Maserati almost seems like a post-post-rock band. The songs progress on their own, turning this way and that, in a way that is largely hard to follow.

We Got the System to Fight the System by MAXIMUM CHERRY

But at all points, there is a backbone in some part of the song, and usually that anchor is the ridiculously steady hands of Fuchs. “They’ll No More Suffer From First” brings in a kraut dance rock influence with synthesizers echoing throughout the song.

At times, Pyramid Of The Sun does stray a bit too far into nothing.”Oaxaca” is about four minutes too long, which is unfortunate, as it has an eight-minute length. But for the most part, Maserati has once again has proven that it is a fine-tuned machine — an unlikely rock band producing some unlikely dance jams. Coming in at just around forty minutes, the only real downside is that Fuchs’ swan song isn’t longer. But for what is on the album, its something to be proud of to go out on: at the top.