PsyOpus
Our Puzzling Encounters Considered

THE REVIEW

Take Dysrythmia, take Behold.. The Arctopus, take Electro Quarterstaff, or rather grab original and innovative bands or simply flashy revivalists, bands light years away from trends and with a personality dictated neither by image nor by poses, because here, more than ever, the instruments do the talking... To this mix, add Psyopus, four degenerates with a grind substrate bastardized by the classic clamor of extreme metal in the most generic sense of the term, and you'll have their second effort, a mad evolution with a particular protagonist: guitarist Christopher Arp.

Everything is exaggerated here, from the speed of execution (the thirty-two seconds of "Play Some Skynyrd", although in this case an example is truly unnecessary) to the arrangements with pig grunts ("The Pig Keeper's Daughter") and horse neighs ("2"), and the over-the-top riffing—a frenzied, unpredictable, and neurotic guitar—even in passages opening to a sound far from the neurotic mood like in "Siobhanis Song", austere, Victorian, sometimes jazzy and with a nevertheless "metallic" ending, is quite surprising. Jhon Cole's drums do not stand out as in other projects of similar wild caliber, as do the voice and bass, which together are still crucial in "kneading" a very particular way of understanding the extreme, with a lot of irony in the lyrics ("Whore Meet Liar", "Happy Valentines Day") and a mix of elements that will confuse you; indeed, you will struggle to grasp the Psyopus project, risking to dismiss it as a stylistic exercise due to the amount of material you will find yourself "handling." If you are among the brave souls who have already "chewed on" the bands mentioned at the beginning, you may struggle less, but the album remains unsuitable for people who are not open-minded, who do not love noise and guitars used like laser guns.

Three and a half stars