Architecture of Realities

Dimensional Psychosis hails from varying parts of the Netherlands and make high quality industrial black metal. They unfortunately split up before this album was even released, which is a big shame because that hampered the recognition this record so clearly deserves. For instance, they only managed to find a distribution label after a long time and because of their demise it isn’t a big one (though it is trustworthy, ordered the record there myself).

Their music is somewhat reminiscent of Abigor’s Fractal Possession, though less polished. In general expect swirling black metal with a large dose of industrial soundscapes and effects as well as use of more conventional synthesizer sounds. The music does clearly have a certain groove from time to time, which a lot of similar acts sorely lack. In that way it references the work of the great Emperor (vocals are also slightly Ihsahn-ish). Though chaos seems to prevail, it is well thought out and there are enough points of reference to cling to when listening. All in all the music is quite good (so it’s too bad their future was cut short), and with song titles like Astral Abortion you just can’t go wrong! Ah, also note the unnamed 8th track, 90′s gabber industrial breakcore black metal which works better than you might expect.

Band members were/are also active in bands like Sauron, Galgeras, Fluisterwoud, Caedere and Botulistum. Spectre, of Control Human Delete fame, made the cover and album art work in general.

Dimensional Psychosis are an industrial black metal band from the Netherlands. As of now they are only composed of instrumentalists with having a session vocalist on their second album, "Architects Of Reality". When listeners usually think "industrial black metal," they think either extremely heavy dance, cyber beats with the guitars like that of the Kovenant or extreme distortion and sampling like that of Darkspace. On "Architects Of Reality" Dimensional Psychosis sounds more like an extreme black metal band than anything else.

The first thing to notice about this album is it is heavily dependent on the drums. The guitars are very psychotic and random at times like on "Singularity." Usually they try to just hammer out notes as quickly as possible, but they can melodic when they want to. Everything tries to be fast and weird, which may appease some industrial black metal fans simply for the intensity of everything. The vocals are evil and have a sort of watery rasp to them, making them almost mechanical and more twisted than the average black metal vocalist which tends to just screech and snarl away. The closest comparison that can be made is perhaps Shagrath of Dimmu Borgir when he's at one of his lower croons. Hell, at times when the music isn't being random and instead is being melodic the structure sounds more like Dimmu Borgir, especially with the keyboards sailing in the background. "Stagnated In Dimensional Quantum" is one of the best examples of this, sounding much like something that came off of In Sorte Diaboli, Dimmu's latest album.

There are SOME industrial elements to this album that make Dimensional Psychosis more than just an average extreme black metal band with a few keyboard moments to call themselves industrial. There's a good chunk of spoken word samples on "Stagnated..." and on the final "Untitled," everything is a complete flip on what Dimensional Psychosis has been creating so far. There's plenty of FX mixing and heavy drum beats backed by the vocals making the track more of a metal dance tune, sounding more like something the Bezerker would do on some of their experimental work. It's catchy, exciting, and the highlight of the track, even if it does sound poorly produced and layered with the vocals being a bit buried amongst all the other music. The 'watery' feel of the guitars at time also enhance the industrial feel, making the music muddled and the "Untitled" certainly worthy of being called "industrial black metal."

While "Architects Of Reality" isn't a strongly industrial as bands like Dodheimsgard or Darkspace, it still holds a strong melody and style that makes it more than just another band that sounds just like fifteen others who listeners have already forgotten the names of. Hopefully the band will take the gem that is the final track and spread it around in their future songs to create some very interesting techno black metal that will still rip ears off but keep fans' feet moving to the beat. Not a bad place to be headed. Their session vocalist was an excellent choice and hopefully they will bring him back for another album or make him a mainstay in the band.

Written for www.brutalism.com

Let it be known right from the get go that this is not a conventional black metal album. It’s not easy to create something new within the genre (or any genre for that matter), but Dimensional Psychosis have at least come pretty damn close to accomplishing it. To be honest I find it extremely hard to even come up with a single act to use for comparison. Unfortunately I also have to admit I have a somewhat hard time getting into their spaced-out message and futuristic aesthetics.

This is way more technical than most black metal as everything’s intricate and complex. The riffing is technical, there are tons of twists and quirks and it’s accompanied by frenetic and masterful drumming that never loses its intensity no matter what tempo change they might swing by your way. And the tempo changes are plenty, with each corner bringing something completely new to the table. There’s absolutely no telling just what the hell will come next, and while the riffing and drumming might be what one will notice change in, the keyboard is what really whips up a spaced-out atmosphere. There are tons of these weird samplings, freakish melodies and weird-ass sounds popping up when you least expect it. It is truly way out there… Vocally it’s absolutely top-notch with intense screams of several variants, that on a few occasions recede into a deep grunt.

There’s no kidding around here, it’s tight-as-hell and ultra frenetic in intensity. The lads are seriously talented musicians, no doubt about it. The experimental, noisy, progressive, jazzy chaos is somehow tamed, and it flows very naturally and coherent despite extremely unorthodox elements to the song structures. But despite how freakishly and wonderfully weird this is I just can’t get fully into it. The aesthetics doesn’t do it for me. I respect the fact that they’re going for something new instead of treading the same worn-out satanic paths we’ve all heard thousands of times before, but it just doesn’t work for me. Musically I have nothing to complain about; it’s some intense shit.

If you’re familiar with the death metal band Dripping you have at least a clue to what’s going on here, albeit in a black metal manner of the later Dødheimsgard instead of death. Now imagine adding the schizophrenia of modern-day jazz grinders Psychofagist and intensity of Semargl to that, and you have an end-result that still doesn’t really cut it, but at least comes close to what Dimensional Psychosis sounds like. It’s like a semi-industrial, death metal-laced futuristic black metal album for aliens. Progressive, technical and unorthodox being the keywords.

Originally written for http://www.mylastchapter.net