PSYOPUS - Odd Senses

Their first album with new singer Brian Woodruff, "Odd Senses" marks a clear step backwards for Psyopus compared to the results achieved on their previous effort, "Our Puzzling Encounters Considered".

This time around, the ultra-technical math-core of the Rochester, New York outfit shows a clear dip in inspiration, ending up handling the material with a bit too much nonchalance and, in the end, sculpting form more than its fusion with the emotional dimension that nonetheless defines the genre (a neurotic blend of grindcore, Dillinger Escape Plan and Behold... The Arctopus).

An album fans will surely love, but one I don't think will manage to reach those who keep a safe distance from this maniacal assortment of musical excess (also because, let it be said in passing, they often tend to turn their noses up...).

Still as jagged as ever, as if having to withstand a continuous, unstoppable electroshock, the quartet unleashes its usual disturbing subversive charge, moving between abrupt shifts in tempo and mood ("Medusa"), slamdance grooves driven along the edge of cybernetic paroxysm, complete with all the requisite psychological torment ("Duct Tape Smile"), broad sweeps of geometric metal with faux-jazzy interludes ("X And Y"), and female vocal loops planted right in the middle of the chaos, to give us (we imagine!) a moment's respite ("Choker Chain").

Eccentric, on the other hand, is the electronic collage of "Imogen's Puzzle Pt 3", as is, for that matter, the "classical-leaning" experiment - not entirely successful, truth be told - of "A Murder To Child". A track like "Boogeyman", meanwhile, reaches the peak of sonic fragmentation: rapid interruptions and sudden accelerations, in a scorched-earth game with progressive overtones that, this time, the band fails to come to terms with, a little too caught up, as it is, in the idea of excess for excess's sake.

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14/02/2009