Review: Psychofagist “s/t” CD

Here's some incredibly frantic and chaotic technical grindcore/metalcore from Italy with a little bit of a jazzy/avant-garde sort of influence (one which I'd like to hear developed further as I'm a sucker for that stuff in most quirky metal). And, honestly, it could be quite promising, but the recording is atrocious so I have a really hard time with it. The bass tone is nice and thick with a smooth flow, but the drums are too rigid and thin (despite a great performance that's the highlight of the CD for me), while the guitars are far too biting and dirty. The vocals are excellent screams that also fall a little far back into the mix and come off as lacking in recording texture, but I do like the naturally over the top aesthetic of the screaming. The songwriting is definitely abrasive and unhinged enough to get on my nerves, as the guitar parts are very caustic and rarely latch onto tangible rhythms ("Emo-Clasis" is an excellently rhythmic track, by contrast) or clear riffs, but the drumming is fucking great and the bassist is impressive as well. So, the rhythm section is dead on performance-wise, and I like the vocals a lot, while the guitars are at times incredibly promising but too often tend to rely on generic chaotic riffing and quick shifts between speedy runs, getting sloppy and noisy at times despite definite musical proficiency overall. "Traces of Ephemeral Steadiness" is another track that has some strong midpaced breaks and spacious dissonance that I enjoy, while the slower and more pounding "Al Tramonto Dell'io" has some Gorguts-ish playing that totally kicks ass, odd time signatures and all. I'd love to hear these guys take that direction and run with it. The layout actually has some great visuals happening with clean text, so for the most part it looks really good and has a consistent aesthetic. Most of the lyrics are in Italian, but English translations are provided, showing that the lyrics tend to deal with abstract topics that hint at commentary on society's ills and such, but nothing gets all too straightforward. I'd give this a 6/10 if the recording was better because I like a lot of the elements and it is interesting. But... alas, the sound quality is just too harsh and rugged to do them justice, so... I'll have to hope that their next effort will win me over. There's something of value here that I'd like to follow to see what they do with it.