(si-ko-man-sur)

Psychomancer is a very perplexing little band; owning both of their albums, I've been intrigued for a while by their curious style. The band's self-titled debut portrays their established sound in a rather raw, unrefined form- this isn't the incredibly streamlined and remarkably elegant material on 'Butchered', and while it is most definitely a lesser beast to the sophomore release, this is still absolutely worth a metalhead's time, at least for the purpose of curiosity.

On this album, Psychomancer plays a very odd combination of Six Feet Under or Jungle Rot style groove death with some thrash leanings and even pinches of oldschool doom/death ala Autopsy. Of course, just this isn't enough for these guys- see stuff like the Aerosmith-style solo which opens 'Inferno'- but as odd as the combination might be, the band pulls it off rather naturally. There's something intensely American about this album, reflecting a more primitive and definitively underground version of many of the post-'04 groove death bands which popped up. The six lengthy tracks on this release are highly varied, with the band diving from slow, punishing groove to uptempo thrash and everywhere in between. Vocals absolutely ape Six Feet Under-era Chris Barnes (but without the strained, whiny quality), and at many points the riffing follows suit; it seems clear that Psychomancer are well versed in some of the more mainstream artists in extreme metal, but seem to deliver such a style with the sort of rawness and urgency befitting such an underground release.

There's a lot of high-speed collision of more rocking passages and extreme, blast-driven ones, contrasted again with crawling, bluesy doom, but the band darts between these styles effectively and without unnecessary abruptness. Despite the strange variation, the songs have a definite flow led by the guitars, with a very solid right hand carving out chunky yet fast palm-muted rhythms and rather sinister melodic touches from time to time. At times this music comes off as surprisingly chaotic, very much due to the forward and uncompressed production which allows everything to ring out hugely all the time. There's a fierceness and aggression to this music which makes it a sort of alarming listen at first; shouldn't stuff with these sort of mainstream leanings be, I don't know, a little nicer?

Ultimately though this is inferior to 'Butchered', but the reason for this is mostly a matter of degree and primitive songwriting. Though the tracks are varied, few of the riffs are absolutely killer and not a great deal of this album will stick to your brain after it's over apart from some of the more definitively odd sections. This isn't as intensely streamlined and focused as its younger cousin, and while the songs are fairly professional in construction, they tend to meander a bit in their long running times and occasionally come off as a couple songs pushed together or one song stretched just a bit too far past its ideas' reach. It doesn't kneecap the album but it does make it a rather occasional listen.

If you were only going to pick up one Psychomancer album, the second is of course the winner, but if you happen to come across this one (though I don't know where; I found mine in a lot on Ebay) you should try it out. The underground metalhead will be interested to see what mainstream metal reabsorbed by the underground sounds like, and if nothing else, the music stays interesting through multiple listens and has enough moments to prevent those listens from being a chore.