The frenetic and schizophrenic intro only serves to give you a hint of the controlled carnage that you will be letting yourself in for when you give this piece of aural chaos a go. The intense drilling guitar sound is manic and a little weird as it fully grates through your entire body like a dentist’s drill. There is very little to report in terms of structure as these guys songs seem completely improvised and randomised as the guitar jumps from one riff to another in a very schizoid knee jerk manner. Comparisons to Pig Destroyer are valid though Psyopus focus entirely on a raging mania from start to finish. “The Burning Halo” will have you begging for mercy from the high pitched squealing guitar sound which pierces remorselessly.
The craziness of the guitar work in every song is equally matched by the relentless technical drumming. The bizarre time changes are volatile giving the album a very dangerous edge as each song threatens to descend into total bedlam, especially on “Duct Tape Smile”. I guess many would say there is a heavy experimental jazz approach to the songs as I felt the band was close to our very own Reth. Whilst “X And Y” skirts the noise genre very fleetingly, a weird spoken intro using sampled voices starts “Boogeyman” as the song goes totally nuts.
The bizarrely structured “Choker Chain” begins fairly normally before sporadic one line chants, such as “Do You love Me?” and “Baby Kiss Me” are alternated with all out grind assaults. It is difficult to say if I actually enjoyed this album or not, as at times I was taken aback at the ferocity and speed that is unleashed but was also left perplexed scratching my head to understand the carnage this album produces. As the album progresses the tracks tend to get longer culminating in a hat trick of songs with the penultimate song “A Murder To Child” containing violins and a classical atmosphere melded with the guitar work. The track is fairly accessible and intriguing though no less intense whereas the untitled 20 minute closing track was an ordeal to say the least. The repeating chant of “One Way Ticket To Hell” follows some chat about Metal Blade as the song, and I am using that word loosely here, dips into thrash as narrated excerpts are interjected. By the 10th minute my attention was failing as the track drifts into their normal manic style by the 11th minute, but only for 30 seconds or so. The song eventually turns ridiculous as by now I was craving for it to end which it does as it returns to how it began.
A very peculiar and disconcerting album meant for all jazz grind junkies out there.
www.pysopus.com
www.myspace.com/psyopus
