The Funeral Pyre (10/23/12)

The Funeral Pyre is a blackened death metal band from La Habra, CA. The group has recorded three studio albums, two EPs and two split releases. The band consists of guitarists James Joyce and Justin Garcia, vocalist John Strachan, drummer Alex Hernandez, and bassist Adam Campbell.

The Funeral Pyre got their start in 2001 under the name Envilent. The Funeral Pyre has gained acclaim amongst metal internet press outlets for its Swedish-style melody, ethereal keyboards, and black metal style vocals.

Several demos and an early EP were released under the bands former identity, Envilent, until the independent release of the 2003 EP, October, when the band changed their name to The Funeral Pyre. Soon, the band released its first full length album, Immersed by the Flames of Mankind in 2004, and a split between Oregon's Leech and The Funeral Pyre was released in 2006, with limited quantities as a split 7" called The First Book Of The Kings, released through Forest Moon Special Products. The band released their second full length album The Nature of Betrayal in 2006, recorded at Ulug studios in Costa Mesa, California through Creator-Destructor Records, an independent California based recording studio. In a distribution deal with Prosthetic Records, The Nature of Betrayal was re-released in 2007, due to decent success on the internet.

Recorded in January and February with producer John Haddad, Wounds was mixed by Erik Rutan and mastered by Alan Douches and was released in 2008. This was the first album to not feature long time keyboardist, Daniella Jones, who was released by the band for "musical differences" and was in turn replaced by a second guitarist, Justin Garcia. However, the band suffered another loss when Garcia left the band, but soon was replaced by Lanny Perelman, formally of Cerberus, who left the band as well. The band has more closely embraced black metal entirely with the release of Wounds, as well as later works. The band released December, mixed and mastered by Ryan Butler at Arcane Digital Recording during December 2008, a limited EP distributed by Creator-Destructor Records in 2009. A 7" split with Landmine Marathon was released shortly after through Forest Moon Special Products, showcasing a cover of short lived German act, ACME's song "Attempt", as well as another original song.

The band's fourth studio album, Vultures at Dawn was released in 2010. It was generally well received, much of the praise coming from the more experimental songs "Monolith" and "To Watch the Earth Rot", both being further from their normal genre of songwriting known to the audience of The Funeral Pyre.