Psycroptic – The Inherited Repression (2012)

In a time when all the Technical Death Metal bands are graded base on how many notes they can whip out in the least amount of time, it is nice to listen to a band that actual focuses on how well the songs listen and structures them around melody and not technical level. Australia’s Psycroptic presents us their fifth full-length release “The Inherited Repression” with a high level of maturity and musicianship.

Pummeling through nine tracks, “The Inherited Repression” keeps the focus on the melodic aspect of things and the nice technical details are mostly playful elements that increase the band’s appeal. With some hints of the great Death, the band delivers waves of excellently crafted riffs and a less annoying version of Chuck Schuldiner-styled vocals. This is immediately evident with the opener “Carriers of the Plague”, a track where the guitar work is very elaborate but the song is also very catchy and effective. We particularly love the melodic passages that get repeated through the song, and the massive drumming as well.

The extreme catchiness continues with “Forward to Submission” and “Euphorinasia”, two songs that feature excellent melodic passages and aggressive drumming. The use of two guitars in some places adds that extra level of dynamism to the band’s sound even though they only have one guitar player. The bass guitar is also very well crafted and unless you pay close attention, it kind of drifts behind in the mix.

Our favorite song in this release is the very effective “Become the Cult”. In this track the band breaks away from their mold a bit and sounds a bit more dynamic and modern rather than just very similar to Death. We particularly like the catchiness of the closing minute of this track. As you can expect, all the instruments are played to perfection, indicating that Psycroptic is indeed a very experienced band and knows how to create short but efficient tracks.

We completely recommend “The Inherited Repression” to any Metal fan that is looking for some good music with a certain level of technical complexity, but never overdone. The band shows both maturity and dexterity in the nine songs presented in this release and we can’t wait to see them play them live. If you are expecting something like Obscura or Meshuggah, then this release might not be completely suited for you but it is worth checking out.

Release: February 10th, 2012

Country: Australia