Psyopus "Ideas of Reference" CD
[Blackmarket]
Much like their demo this full-length is a fucking insane jumble of maniacal screaming, blasting speeds, and crazy technical riffing that's really god damn hard to wrap your head around. In fact, it gives me a headache! I damn sure admire the band's musicianship, as every member has impressive skills, and the performances are dead on and crystal clear... but holy crap is this hard to listen to! I don't want to say it's a waste, hell, the quirky jazzy guitars that open "Death, I..." are fucking Atheist level, as are some of the other riffs, but damn... it's really just like listening to noise in the end, it's just that the noise requires a shitload of counting and technical aptitude. These guys are such incredible players but there aren't even any segments of more than 30 or so seconds on the entire CD where they drop awesome riffs nonstop without cluttering everything up. The drummer is incredible and plays some insane fills and patterns, but it's hard to isolate that in the mix and focus on the drumming. I find the guitar parts and vocals to be very irritating most of the time. Part of that is because the recording is on the abrasive side and favors the vocals too much, but... I don't know. I like the generally dry drum tone and the definition of the bass, and they have succeeded in achieving a great level of clarity, but I think the recording needs a little tweaking as well... just not as much as the writing. I really like the layout as it keeps things minimal using few colors and lots of blank black space with ultra crisp, compact text and small detail images of medical diagrams. The booklet has text arranged so that you can read the lyrics from one side and thanks lists and such notes from the other side, which is a different twist. I like the flow of the lyrics, too. "Self strained to the point of dissociation swallowed by this blinding humiliation becomes hell binding predator and prey dyad mannequin swallowed by this blinding of incessant torture." This is another one where I'm giving them a 6/10 out of respect, even though I honestly find this very hard to listen to. It's intriguing to experience just because it's so fucking chaotic and insane that it's impossible to believe that they can pull off all those changes and different riffs like that, and I bet they're interesting to watch live, but the music is just not enjoyable to me. Sure, I love the dissonant Dillinger meets Cynic riffing in "Mirrorrim", but the songwriting, to me, borders on being terrible simply because there are literally almost no tangible elements whatsoever. A damn shame... (6/10)
Running time - 30:00 (approximately), Tracks: 9
[Notable tracks: you honestly can't tell that much of a difference from song to song, nothing really stands out]
Blackmarket Activities - http://www.blackmarketactivities.com

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