This young four-piece from Tasmania, Australia has
released a fine album of technical death metal. It's hard to believe that
the members of Psycroptic are only around 20 years of age, and that The
Isle of Disenchantment is a self-produced release, cause it sounds
fucking great.
The skills of the musicians are already at a very
high level. As drummer Dave explains in the interview in this issue, this
is probably thanks to the Australian government, which gives grants to
young bands like Psycroptic to improve and record.
Another thing that is quite noteworthy about The
Isle of Disenchantment is that it doesn't sound at all like a rip
off of any other band. The un-catchiness of technical death makes bands
in the genre especially susceptible to the "sounds just like the last
band I heard" syndrome, but Psycroptic stands out somehow.
It's apparent that the band is trying to experiment
while staying well within what death metal enthusiasts will accept. The
vocalist uses an interesting variety of styles and deliveries, sounding
kind of like a multi-track except it's all on one track. There are some
very unsual lyrics to be found on the album as well, like on the song
"Condemned by Discontent." This is coming from a guy who almost never
reads his albums' lyric sheets.
Despite its good points, The Isle of Disenchantment
is not an album that you can just put on and be effortlessly blown away
by. This album must receive your full attention for you to notice its
qualities. The reason for this lies partially in that although the band
has a solid sound, Psycroptic doesn't do a lot to make individual tracks
stand out. The result is a very consistent album that shows how competent
and promising this band is, but still lacks the arrangements or hook to
make you want to postpone listening to the next track for a bit in order
to listen to the one you just heard again.
It would certainly be unfair criticism to fault this
developing band for not having released a perfect album so soon in their
career. Rather, what Psycroptic have already got going for them on this
album should be hopefully just the beginning of things to come.
