Broken Pillars are an Iranian black metal band, and this is their debut EP.
To start with I’m going to just lazily regurgitate some of the promo blurb for Of Pillars and Primordial Myth, as it sets the scene nicely for this EP – “Broken Pillars’ music can be described as the Persian response to Hellenic black metal. The songs contain slow yet deliberate doomy-sounding guitar riffing accompanied by grandiose symphonic arrangements. The music can be described as chants trying to reawaken an empire lost to the cruelties of time.”
So, put less eloquently, Of Pillars and Primordial Myth contains 17 minutes of epic, symphonic black/doom metal. There are two songs here, and both excel at Broken Pillars’ hypnotic, epic, atmosphere-building style.
Pillars of the Primordial Myth is a 10-minute track that opens with calm, gentle strumming, before a twisting blackened riff fades up with keyboard-enhanced depth. It’s martial and commanding, immediately giving Broken Pillars a presence and power that tells the listener that the band know how to write a good epic. I wasn’t expecting monstrous growls, but we get them, and I’m not complaining. The music feels spacious, atavistic, otherworldly, and, well, epic. Broken Pillars seem adept at crafting atmospheric epics that build mood and sustain it with skilled grace. Pillars of the Primordial Myth is hypnotic in its potency, and boasts an unfolding repetitive nature that is very effective. The orchestral elements seem to grow in stature and the song acquires even more layers as it progresses.
We Come to Cleanse is next, a seven-minute mood piece that has a darker lustre than its predecessor, yet is no less epic. There’s a haunting quality to the song that’s majestic and terrifying, demonstrating that the commanding presence of Pillars of the Primordial Myth was no fluke. The growls are harsher and more formidable, like they’re trying to swallow the world. The music’s layers are well-rendered once more, crafting an immersive atmosphere that thickens and broadens as the music develops. It’s a companion piece to Pillars of the Primordial Myth in that it follows a roughly similar structure and style, building on Broken Pillars’ able capabilities well.
Of Pillars and Primordial Myth very capably showcases the epic atmospheric music of Broken Pillars. If you have a taste for the sort of absorbing depth that this band create, then you should delve right into their imposing, forceful world.
Wonderbox Metal 