Feb 092012
 

(TheMadIsraeli enthusiastically reviews the new album from Tasmania’s Psycroptic.)

Napalm explosions of technical-as-fuckity-fuck riffs everywhere. Death induced by intricate, fusion-fueled, machine-precise drum attacks. Soul-rending incantations in the vocals. And, like . . .

EVERY POSSIBLE FUCKING THING THAT CAN BE RIGHT ABOUT DEATH METAL.

 
Psycroptic are the shit.  I think we all know this, but it’s SUCH a magnitude of the shit that sometimes . . . sometimes there’s a man . . . well, he’s the man for his time and place . . . and . . .

Ok, enough Big Lebowski quoting.  Sometimes an album needs to be defined, because sometimes we’re just not ready for what comes at us through our speakers, headphones, tin cans attached with strings, whatever your preferred listening apparatus is, because Psycroptic will cause said apparatus to melt at scorching hot temperatures and then burn their music directly into your skull so that it infinitely repeats itself with no off-switch.  The pain will be great, but it will also be purifying.

I’ve seen and heard some complaints about this band since the departure of vocalist Chalky and the introduction of current frontman Jason Peppiatt.  Don’t like him?  Time to get over it.  I think he is bringing a much-needed, more-focused approach to vocals that matches Psycroptic’s surgically precise instrumental assault.  He has a powerful voice, he sounds pissed — like he wants to kill — and  that complements the killing music. Continue reading »

Jan 302012
 

Yes, I realize we’re swamping you in posts today, but I do think this qualifies as newsworthy:

Psycroptic’s new album, The Inherited Repression, is streaming in full at Guitar World.  To get there, click this link.

The album will be released by Nuclear Blast on Feb. 7 in NorthAm and on Feb. 10 in Europe. The album is available for pre-order — with our without an exclusive T-shirt design — at this location.

I’m attempting to do what I’m paid to do at my job, and therefore haven’t yet had a chance to hear this. But unless I entered a parallel universe sometime between falling asleep last night and awakening today, this album will surely be a superior supercharger of technical death metal.

Dec 152011
 

This will be quick: those titanic Tasmanians in Psycroptic have released a new song for streaming. It’s called “Carriers of the Plague”. It’s from their forthcoming album, The Inherited Repression (the artwork for which you can see above), which will hit stores on February 7th in North America and February 10, 2012 in Europe via Nuclear Blast Records.

I like it. You will like it, too.  That’s both a prediction and an order.

Listen after the jump, and then leave comments telling us how much you like it.  I also have another new song you WILL also like (in the next post). Continue reading »

Dec 022011
 

November is done, and the countdown begins to the end of 2011 and he beginning of the New Year. We’ve been so focused this week on the year behind us, since 2011 Listmania is now in full swing, that we almost forgot that there is a future, and it will be filled with metal.

So, here’s the deal:  In these METAL IN THE FORGE posts, we collect news blurbs and press releases we’ve seen over the last month (November) about forthcoming new albums from bands we know and like (including occasional updates about releases we’ve included in previous installments of this series), or from bands that look interesting, even though we don’t know their music yet. In this series, we cut and paste those announcements and compile them in alphabetical order.

Remember — THIS ISN’T A CUMULATIVE LIST. If we found out about a new forthcoming album before November, we wrote about it in previous installments of this series. So, be sure to check the Category link called “Forthcoming Albums” on the right side of this page to see forecasted releases we reported earlier.

This month’s list begins right after the jump. As usual, this list is half-assed rather than comprehensive. So, feel free to leave Comments and tell all of us what we missed when we put this list together. Let us know about albums on the way that  you’re stoked about! Continue reading »

Nov 102011
 

Today’s e-mails brought this piece of welcome news to NCS: Australia’s Psycroptic has announced that their fifth studio album, The Inherited Repression, will hit stores on February 7 in North America and February 10 in Europe. The album, which will be the band’s second release on Nuclear Blast Records, will include nine tracks. Here’s what Psycroptic guitarist, Joe Haley, had to say about the new music:

The Inherited Repression is far and away my favorite Psycroptic album thus far – all of us in the band think this. It’s the age-old cliché from bands when they talk about their current album as being the best of their career, blah, blah, but I have to say it because it’s true. We wouldn’t think there is a point of going on if we couldn’t outdo each album prior. We are certainly not playing music for anything else than the love of creating it and performing it.

The Inherited Repression is quite different from anything we have done in terms of song writing and structure, and we spent a lot longer writing and demoing the songs before we recorded it, which you can tell. It’s a very dynamic album – the fast elements faster, the slow elements slower, and a lot of light and dark binding it together. It’s a very catchy album as well – you can tap your foot, bang your head or anything else you want. Basically it has a lot of groove on it from start to finish.”

This all sounds good to me, but then again, I would be in the market for this album even if Joe Haley had said, “I don’t know what went wrong, but the new album sounds like utter shit, yet we’re releasing it anyway because there ain’t no fuckin’ way we’re going to start over after all the fucking time we put into it.”

As for why I would get this album sound unheard, go past the jump and check out the official video for “Initiate”, one of the songs from Psycroptic’s last album, Ob(Servant). Awesome song, and an awesome video, too. Continue reading »

Apr 282010
 

In our more sentimental, naive moments, we like to think that if you lead a good life, good things will come your way. That’s the first thing we thought last night when we saw the announcement of an incredible tour launching this fall. And then we realized that you could lead the most disgustingly vile life imaginable, and all it would take for you to see this tour would be to live within driving distance of 21 select cities. So, call it random chance if you want to be strictly logical. But since one of those select cities is Seattle, we like to think it’s our reward for being so fucking good.

Feast your glazed, hooded eyes on this international line-up:

NILE (U.S.)
EX DEO (Italy)
PSYCROPTIC (Tasmania)
KEEP OF KALESSIN (Norway)
PATHOLOGY (U.S.)

See what we mean? That’s as strong a line-up from top to bottom as we’ve seen in many moons. It’s metalhead luxury beyond the dreams of avarice. It’s got to be a reward for something, doesn’t it? So for all of you out there who’ve been good, congratulations.  And for all of you who have been disgustingly vile, check out the the list of tour dates after the jump to see if random chance has allowed you to live within driving distance of one of the anointed cities.

It’s really hard to say which of these bands we’re most stoked to see, because they’re all awesome, but Psycroptic is certainly in the running. Those devilish tech-death savants from Tasmania have put out one ass-kickingly brilliant album after another and recently released an awesome live CD/DVD combo called Initiation. So, in honor of this tour’s announcement, we’ll play you a song from that live album (also after the jump . . .)

Continue reading »

Dec 022009
 

Psycroptic in Indonesia

psycroptic2

We’re big fans of Psycroptic. First, they’re called Psycroptic. Second, they’re from Tasmania for fuck’s sake. Third, they play some awesome technical death metal. And fourth, when they tour, they go to places like Indonesia (Java and Bali to be precise) — and they draw big crowds there! I’m not shitting you. The photos up above are from Psycroptic’s Indonesian tour in November. The band’s amazing drummer Dave Haley released a report about the experience. Here’s an excerpt:

“We can honestly say we can’t wait to go back! Indonesia’s metal scene is huge, and feels more like a ‘community’ than just music fans. I can honestly say I’ve never seen so much enthusiam and passion for music anywhere in the world. What an amazing place…I wish every tour could be as good as that one was!”

Who knew?

AustralianHeavyMetalLogo

Then on top of that, Psycroptic returned to Australia to learn that they had received a pile of awards at the first annual Australian Metal Awards show in Sydney, including best live band and — what did I tell you — best band name.

And they’re working on new music for release in 2010.

For more details about all these doings, go here.