Psychotogen "The Calculus of Evil" CD
[Crash]
Damn, this isn't so bad. I thought their last record was decent, and while I'm not blown away by this, and I think the production needs work, these dudes write some insanely cool riffs and have a lot of musical talent under their belts. It's technical death metal with great interplay between guitars and bass, and not focused so much on crazy speeds or anything like that, so there's a lot of feeling to the riffs and it has more in common with the classics of the complex side of the genre than the "wild and crazy" aspects of more modern technical outfits. Hands down the biggest problem with this disc is the mix, as the tones are all pretty good, but the vocals are way too damn far out front, and there's not enough oomph to the core of the instrumentation. The bass tone is really defined and accents the slappy, pickless playing style of the bassist - so the bass can't really be turned up without becoming a distraction, and I like the clarity of the drumming. But the percussion could use a bit more natural warmth, and maybe the bass tone could be thicker? The guitars sound really good, but something's missing in there. Everything needs to be closer together and the vocals shouldn't be so dominant at all. I feel like some of the force of the riffing id getting lost, but the details are certainly evident as everything is crystal clear. "The Poison Sleep" is an acoustic instrumental, and that all sounds fucking excellent, however. "The Gilded Sleep" starts out with acoustic guitars and then sweeps into a slower and more dissonant set of riffs that really have a different feel from anything else on the record, at times getting thrashier as well. I'm not into the weird sort of half-sung backup vocals that pop up at all, but whatever. At the end of the disc is an unlisted cover of Judas Priest's "All Guns Blazing", which really makes me wonder whether or not these guys should try their hands at straight metal, because it rules! Ha! The layout's not bad. Some of the fonts seem like strange choices to me but I like the arrangement and most of the illustrations are pretty cool. The lyrics are sort of a mix, some more literal than others: "A soiled banner flying high above them. Waving freely for the blood they've shed. All the patriots called to arms, dealing death for their figurehead. But who cares? And who dies? No one questions when the smile's right..." Musically this band is incredibly talented and they come up with some killer riffs. I think the songwriting needs tweaking, and a fuller recording would be beneficial, so I'm not totally into this. But should they continue to grow in the right direction they could really turn a lot of heads. Who knows? (6/10)
Running time - 43:25, Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: The Gilded Sleep, All Guns Blazing]
Psychotogen - http://www.psychotogen.com

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