They combine several audible influences: the vocalist has the malevolent snarl of Pig Destroyer's JR Hayes; there are the lurching, interrupted blast beats and dissonant, anguished chordwork of Gorguts' "Obscura", and the furious, robust energy and power of Brutal Truth - likely my all time favorite death / grind band, who have always seemed to make their contemporaries sound only half awake.  There is also something of the disjointed anhedonia of the lesser known Ephel Duath, a band whose music few were prepared for, and the punishing fuzz bass mosh pit groove of Botch.

It's an exhausting, challenging listen.  Admittedly, the album took me 3 separate sittings to get through.  However, unlike many albums by their influences, with this album the listener is likely to remember each individual piece.  Where Meshuggah or the aforementioned Gorguts tend to portray slightly varying facets of the same alien asymmetry in every track, intentionally limiting their palette, Pyrrhon opts for a wildly different approach with each song.  Though the darkness of the music is unshakeable, the band certainly understands dynamics, and even how to vary the level of density in their music, a rare quality indeed for a technical metal band.

The drummer is furiously blast beating within a second of the start of the album, and throws in some d-beats as well over the 1:30 span of opener "The Oracle of Nassau", essentially an atmospheric grind track, not unlike the music of Discordance Axis. 

Following this, the 10 minute "White Flag" is a total about face, beginning very gradually with a doom metal bassline.  When the riff enters after 2 minutes, it's an omage to Gorguts' sludgiest and slowest moments.  Pyrrhon's guitarist Dylan DiLella shares Luc Lemay's penchant for eerie waltz-like triplets and calculated dissonances.  For many minutes following this, the band recedes into sparser but no less uneasy dingy alleyway atmospheres, spending far longer in this realm than Gorguts ever has, even throwing in some noisy jazzcore improv for dramatic effect as the music dissipates on a couple separate occasions.

Songs like "Balkanized" and "Sleeper Agent" are perhaps the album's most accessible songs, concise and full of crushing power, with riffs that perfectly balance labyrinthine complexity with memorability.

"Eternity in a Breath" is simply ghoulish, an utterly lightless 8 minute plod with whispered / chanted vocals, an echo chamber sound, and no satisfying heaviness to be found in its conclusion.  Here we are in the pleasureless world of post black metal, just one sub level of suicide above Leviathan and Esoteric.  Every chord carries intense dread and tension, and the commanding bellows in the second half are akin to early Swans.

With the album's final three songs, pinch harmonics more frequently appear, calling to mind fond memories of Cryptopsy's "Whisper Supremacy" or later Emperor.  The strange dissonant melodies beneath the fractured rhythm become quite hypnotic, particularly in "The Parasite In Winter".  I'm a sucker for extended finale tracks, and the title track here does not disappoint.  My words fail to descibe it, but it's probably the best thing on the album.

In conclusion, this album is one of the most ambitious, creative and intense heavy albums I've ever heard, and if you like any band I have mentioned in this review, I highly recommend you check this out, as I truly believe Pyrrhon has equalled any of these amazing bands with "The Mother of Virtues".  They attempt so much, yet nothing is overdone, and nothing is lacking.  You especially MUST check this out if you're one of those who has been raving about "Colored Sands" for the past year, the album this sounds the most like.  I believe this is a future classic.