Best Of, 1975-1981

Editors’ Notes Offering a generous 18 tracks spanning six years of recordings, Best Of, 1975-1981 is an ideal way to become acquainted with the Hungarian hard prog band Piramis. But this compilation also works for longtime fans, culling the cream of the group's crop into a solid mix that rocks with the cohesive flow of a double album. “Szabadnak Születtem” opens with labyrinthine analog synthesizer notes twisting through meaty guitar riffs before Révész Sándor comes in singing like a Hungarian Ronnie James Dio. The arrangements are heady and complex without succumbing to gnarled entanglements, but what’s even more impressive are the falsetto harmonies between Sándor and keyboardist Gallai Péter. The following “Ha Volna Két Életem” (translated “If I Had Two Lives”) is a contemplative ballad recorded in 1977; even if you can’t understand the Hungarian lyrics, the tension and urgency in Sándor’s emotion is undeniably palpable. With the acoustic-based “Őszintén Akarok Élni,” the band flirts with the folk side of Hawkwind-inspired space-rock trappings. “A Becsület” plays like a funkier Black Sabbath.