If we looked for one single word to describe Psycroptic’s “Divine Council”, it would be simply and accurately virtuosity. Mesmerizing riff patterns and a playing technique that makes them recognizable among a thousand bands, Psycroptic are still following the path they set for themselves.
And what’s more impressive is that in a sea of bands that sound alike, music-wise and sound-wise, the Australian band has succeeded to be unique in a genre that’s already saturated with entities relying on their idols to create their music.
This is one of these albums where it all sounds so simple, but pick your instrument to play any song and you’ll be left there wondering how to put a note after the other, and this is where the real technical mastery relies on, to fool you into thinking it’s simple.
But these features aren’t the only ones that catch your ear as the brutality component is more present in this release than it ever was in their previous masterpieces.
There is that dilemma among musicians, whether it is your technique that makes you a genius or is it your creativity and your ability to come up with new ideas and concepts.
Well, Psycroptic has definitely solved it, blasting our faces off with virtuosity, and creating their own unique form of extreme metal. And although you could categorize them in the technical death metal branch, they do not sound like any other death metal.
The album is perfectly balanced between the instruments, but also regarding the emotions that it translates, between pure rage and melancholic vibes, the vocals tearing the space and time around them, and the drums coming at you with brute force, which makes for a very complete album.
Let’s hope this is the album that pushes Psycroptic up a couple of slots in the running order of the big summer festivals and gets them the recognition that they truly deserve, as the pioneers of something theirs, something unique.
Psycroptic: Facebook
Release Year: 2022
Label: EVP Recordings
Category: Album
Country: Australia
Reviewed by Oussama EL OUADIE
