Full disclosure: Pyrrhon is a Brooklyn-based band whose singer, Doug Moore, is both a friend of mine and a Stereogum contributor. Doug’s written some really big features for us, and he’s also part of the team that curates our monthly metal column, the Black Market. I met Doug in 2011, when I took over as editor for the metal blog Invisible Oranges, where he was a contributing writer. (He’s now the editor of that site, in fact.) Anyway, we’re good friends and colleagues, and have been for years, and I’m not gonna pretend to be objective about Doug’s music because I’m obviously not objective about Doug’s music. But Doug’s membership in Pyrrhon long predates our friendship, and their second album, The Mother Of Virtues, is just about to come out on Relapse Records, one of the biggest metal labels in the world, and even if I’d never met the guy, I honestly believe I’d be covering this record on Stereogum. But because I do know the guy, and especially because he writes for Stereogum, I gotta present it extremely carefully. So here’s the deal: The Mother Of Virtues was produced by Ryan Jones (Today Is The Day, Mutilation Rites) and mastered by Colin Marston (Gorguts, Krallice). The other guys in Pyrrhon are Dylan DiLella (guitar), Erik Malave (bass), and Alex Cohen (drums). Their music is called “death metal” but to me it sounds more like metal-based progressive noise; the most obvious “death metal” influence I hear on this thing is Gorguts, who are the weirdest death metal band anyway, and even so, to my ear, Gorguts are still much more “death metal” than Pyrrhon. I really like it — which I’m telling you only because offering no opinion whatsoever might suggest that I don’t like it. And I do! But like I said, I can’t pretend to be objective about any of this, so without further comment, I’ll leave it here for you to listen to if you so choose, and form opinions of your own.

The Mother Of Virtues is out 4/1 via Relapse. Pyrrhon is touring with Psalm Zero next month. Here are the dates:

03/07 – Richmond, VA @ Strange Matter

03/08 – Nashville, TN @ The Spring Water

03/09 – New Orleans, LA @ TBA

03/11 – SXSW

03/12 – SXSW

03/14 – TBA

03/15 – Carbondale, IL @ Skihouse

03/16 – St. Louis, MO @ Fubar

03/17 – Madison, WI @ Willy’s St. Pub and Grill

03/18 – Chicago, IL @ Cobra Lounge

03/19 – Berkley, MI @ Berkley Front

03/20 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Smiling Moose

03/28 – Brooklyn, NY @ Trans Pecos