Pillorian was an American metal band from

Portland, Oregon Portland (, ) is a port city in the Pacific Northwest and the largest city in the U.S. state of Oregon. Situated at the confluence of the Willamette and Columbia rivers, Portland is the county seat of Multnomah County, the most populous co ...

. It was formed in 2016 by

John Haughm John Haughm (born September 14, 1975) is a musician and artist from the United States. He is most known for being the founder, guitarist, and vocalist of the band Agalloch, and later Pillorian. He is also a designer who has created packaging and ...

, Trevor Matthews, and Stephen Parker. Pillorian released their only full-length album, ''Obsidian Arc'', on March 10, 2017.

History

Pillorian was formed early in the summer of 2016 with the stated goal of " reatinga unique, sinister, and twisted style of dark/

black metal Black metal is an extreme metal, extreme subgenre of heavy metal music. Common traits include Tempo#Beats per minute, fast tempos, a Screaming (music)#Black metal, shrieking vocal style, heavily distorted Electric guitar, guitars played with t ...

". The word "pillorian" means "of or relating to scorn and condemnation". The band formed shortly after the breakup of Haughm's previous band,

Agalloch Agalloch () was an American extreme metal band from Portland, Oregon. Formed in 1995 by frontman John Haughm, they released five full-length albums, four EPs, two singles, one split single, two demos, four compilation albums and one live video ...

. On February 10, 2017 Pillorian released their first single, "A Stygian Pyre".

NPR National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...

described the titular song as "feral" and "bestial", but with "enormous" production values. One month later, on March 10, 2017 Pillorian released their first full studio album, ''Obsidian Arc''. The album received mixed to positive reviews. Sputnik Music gave the album a rating of 5 out of 5, or "classic", and alluding to a lyric from one of Agalloch's songs, summarized its review by saying that "if this grand panorama before me is what you call god... then god is not dead." ''

Decibel The decibel (symbol: dB) is a relative unit of measurement equal to one tenth of a bel (B). It expresses the ratio of two values of a power or root-power quantity on a logarithmic scale. Two signals whose levels differ by one decibel have a po ...

'' magazine gave the album an 8/10 review, calling it "categorically black metal" and "darker, edgier and far more dissonant" than Haughm's previous work as the frontman of Agalloch. Metal Injection called the album a "somewhat promising start", but said that the album was too safe and that despite being good, "seldom eerstowards being great". In February 2019, Matthews and Parker both left the band after Haughm made comments on Facebook that were criticized for being

anti-Semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

. In his apology letter, Haughm stated that Pillorian would not continue.

Members

– guitars, vocals (2016–2019) *Trevor Matthews – drums (2016–2019) *Stephen Parker – guitars, bass guitar (2016–2019)

Discography

Studio albums

*''Obsidian Arc'' (March 10, 2017; Label: Eisenwald Tonschmiede)

Singles

*''A Stygian Pyre'' (February 10, 2017; Label: Eisenwald Tonschmiede)

References

{{Authority control Musical groups established in 2016 Musical groups disestablished in 2019 American black metal musical groups Musical groups from Portland, Oregon Musical trios 2016 establishments in Oregon 2019 disestablishments in Oregon