Psyopus – Our Puzzling Encounters Considered
Metal Blade – 3984-14602-2 – February 2, 2007
By Oliver Holm
Technicality for music’s sake – or music for technicality’s sake? Extreme metal has never been more offbeat, intricate (arithmetical, even) or multiform than right now, and the catalogue of ensembles from which to choose is wider and more international than ever before. Psyopus is modern hardcore-flavoured grindcore taken to its ultra-technical extreme, where faster-than-a-rabbit-fuck fretboard masturbation and blastbeat buffets transcend the mundane construct that is traditional songwriting.
Our Puzzling Encounters Considered can be described as a relentless – and to most ears tiresome – encounter with a mega-size jigsaw o’ riffs assembled in the most incoherent, erroneous fashion. Now, in the name of entertainment there is a fine line between technical instrumentation that I can listen to and technical instrumentation that I need to watch on YouTube to value, and that line is called musical texture. Admiration is due when a band can make The Dillinger Escape Plan seem like a high-school brass band and Calculating Infinity sound like a new Six Feet Under album. But is it an album worth?
No, it is not. Whether it be the calculated tricks’n’twists of ‘Insects’, the histrionic vocal dissonance on ‘Whore Meet Liar’ or the moronic, unfunny hidden track w/ ditto intro, I fail to see the artistic worth of Our Puzzling Encounters Considered outside of sheer narcissistic six-string virtuosoism. That said, the ear-seductive ‘Imogen’s Puzzle Pt. 2’ could well be how Mozart resonates inside a crack-saturated mind, and is to me the finest (sole?) attraction on this record; which – admittedly – has a heck of a lot to do with the fact that the track is 100 % instrumental. For better or worse, screamer Adam Frappolli remains a lacklustre taste of convention amidst all-out unconventional havoc.
Believe me, I love odd-time confection and technical tutti-frutti both as a music maker and music lover. Yet there has to be nutritional substance underneath, and because of that Psyopus will to me serve as snack-time diversion and little else.
Official Psyopus Website
Official Metal Blade Website
Metal Blade – 3984-14602-2 – February 2, 2007
By Oliver Holm
Technicality for music’s sake – or music for technicality’s sake? Extreme metal has never been more offbeat, intricate (arithmetical, even) or multiform than right now, and the catalogue of ensembles from which to choose is wider and more international than ever before. Psyopus is modern hardcore-flavoured grindcore taken to its ultra-technical extreme, where faster-than-a-rabbit-fuck fretboard masturbation and blastbeat buffets transcend the mundane construct that is traditional songwriting.
Our Puzzling Encounters Considered can be described as a relentless – and to most ears tiresome – encounter with a mega-size jigsaw o’ riffs assembled in the most incoherent, erroneous fashion. Now, in the name of entertainment there is a fine line between technical instrumentation that I can listen to and technical instrumentation that I need to watch on YouTube to value, and that line is called musical texture. Admiration is due when a band can make The Dillinger Escape Plan seem like a high-school brass band and Calculating Infinity sound like a new Six Feet Under album. But is it an album worth?
No, it is not. Whether it be the calculated tricks’n’twists of ‘Insects’, the histrionic vocal dissonance on ‘Whore Meet Liar’ or the moronic, unfunny hidden track w/ ditto intro, I fail to see the artistic worth of Our Puzzling Encounters Considered outside of sheer narcissistic six-string virtuosoism. That said, the ear-seductive ‘Imogen’s Puzzle Pt. 2’ could well be how Mozart resonates inside a crack-saturated mind, and is to me the finest (sole?) attraction on this record; which – admittedly – has a heck of a lot to do with the fact that the track is 100 % instrumental. For better or worse, screamer Adam Frappolli remains a lacklustre taste of convention amidst all-out unconventional havoc.
Believe me, I love odd-time confection and technical tutti-frutti both as a music maker and music lover. Yet there has to be nutritional substance underneath, and because of that Psyopus will to me serve as snack-time diversion and little else.
Official Psyopus Website
Official Metal Blade Website
