(Ob)Servant gets straight to the action; there’s no pissing around with big fancy intros as Aussie deathers Psycroptic throw you into an all-out sonic assault of super-fast and ultra-technical metal. Grinding guitar and roaring deep-throat vocals are the order of the day… and then there’s the percussion.
The percussion on (Ob)Servant is unbelievable. And I don’t use that word in its hyperbolic capacity - I mean that I literally struggle to believe that a human being can play drums with such ludicrous speed and precision. The odd pallet of kit sounds (pinging cymbals and the most out-of-place snare tone ever) does little to assuage the feeling that Psycroptic’s drummer might, in fact, be some sort of machine… but there he is, pictured and listed on the band’s website. Maybe he’s some sort of terminator-esque cyborg? Human brain, mechanical limbs powered by hydrogen fuel cells and microhydraulic systems…
Sorry, got carried away there. (Ob)Servant is obviously influenced by Meshuggah, but that goes without saying at this end of the metallic spectrum. Psycroptic have a more traditional metal sound by comparison to the Swedish legends, however; the guttural vocals and rather pedestrian rhythm guitar parts lack the progressive intricacy and invention that add interest to music that revolves around sheer relentless power.
As the album proceeds, you realise that Mr Cyborg-Drums is Psycroptic’s secret weapon, but also their handicap - because his work is so impressive, it gets brought to the forefront of every track, but that means that there’s not a great deal else happening of note, leaving Ob(Servant) to be an album of average metal songs with utterly insane percussion. In fact, by the time you’re two thirds through you’ll probably have heard enough; there’s only nine songs, but they’re almost all a couple of minutes longer than necessary, and self-indulgence without sufficient novelty is a hard sell.
You know how sometimes you get a band who have an absolute fretboard wizard in the line-up, and so every song is all big twiddly solos and clever guitar stuff? Psycroptic are like that, only with drums. Which isn’t to say the rest of the band are bad, but it’s like having Linford Christie taking part in the relay race at a school sports day: his team are sure to win, but everyone else in it gets shown up as being pretty damned slow by comparison.
So I guess we might say that Psycroptic are a band for the connoisseur of technique - put it this way, if you love to hear hyperkinetic drum playing in the extreme metal mode, you’ll probably love (Ob)Servant, because the musicianship is pretty peerless. But the songwriting? Meh - not so much so.
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Posted in Music reviews |
Tags: (Ob)Servant, death metal, progressive, Psycroptic, technical
September 30th, 2008 at 2:05 pm
Are you even a fan of this music? You attack tech death for being technical, and then say there’s a talented drummer who makes the album slightly worthwhile. You basically state “This is tech death”, and subsequently give reasons as to why its good or bad simply by mentioning the properties of which the sub-genre encompasses.
You’ll find Psycroptic rarely play solos, but rely on the power of their riffs, something they do in fine fashion; to knock them for it because you either don’t understand the music or simply haven’t given the disc enough listens would seem very unfair and highly unprofessional.
It’s all down to opinion, but these guys are at the forefront of people’s minds when discussing such a style of music, and not just because of the drummer - I get the impression that if the drumming is the sole aspect you can comment on positively, you haven’t spent much time within the sub-genre.
September 30th, 2008 at 7:00 pm
I’m a fan of music in general; I’d confess to not being a particular devotee of tech death, but I’ve heard plenty of it that I liked, and I just felt that Psycroptic’s tunes didn’t quite match up on quality by comparison.
I wouldn’t say I “attacked” the genre, either, though I can see how it might read that way. I focussed on the drumming because on the first few listens that’s overwhelmingly what you notice the most, and even after a few listens through the songs just weren’t gripping me; I’m reviewing for a theoretical audience of all rock and metal fans, not just those who already like the genre or band in question, so I call it how it sounds. I’d love to have the time and resources to be an expert in every subgenre of rock music there is, but there aren’t enough hours in the day to just listen to music, sadly.
But kudos to you, James, for making your point coherently and politely, and actually attacking the review rather than the writer. I wish I had more commenters like you!
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:23 am
Did you listen with your ears, or judge by the pressure waves thumping against your body?
The only way that this sounds like it is influenced by Meshuggah is the vocals… or was that ALL death metal that uses growls/screams?
I’m not saying it wasn’t influenced by Meshuggah, but I sure as hell don’t hear it as an ‘obvious’ influence.
October 22nd, 2008 at 6:49 pm
As mentioned above, I’m not claiming expertise in the genre; I don’t know how every tech-death band sounds, and nor (I expect) does my average reader, though like me they may have heard some of the bigger names, Meshuggah being the obvious example. Maybe if I was more accustomed to the sub-genre then, as you say, I might have noticed other influences.
But it always baffles me when people who are evidently die-hard fans of a genre attack a generalist review of something from that genre; rather than be grateful for someone taking the time to give the music you love best a fair crack of the whip and a bit of exposure, you take them to task for not knowing enough about the genre to be reviewing it.
So where does the mark lie as far as ‘proper’ qualifications go? As far as I’m concerned, I have ears and I’ve listened to various forms of rock and metal music for two thirds of my lifespan. If that’s not good enough, well, no one’s forcing you to read, are they?
October 22nd, 2008 at 11:33 pm
how can you say there isnt much other than the drums on this album??!@?!?!?
Psycroptic’s guitarists are insane! maybe they don’t solo but i sure as hell couldnt play any of that.
October 23rd, 2008 at 8:32 am
Just read through it again; still failing to see where I described the band or the album as being bad. I described the guitar work as comparatively pedestrian, and the songwriting as self-indulgent and unexciting. And you know why? Because that’s how they sounded to me. End of story.