The God-Shaped Void

Psychotic Waltz have always been known to march (or, rather, waltz) to the beat of their own (psychotic) drum, and not only that, but to a different drum with each album - the only two albums they've done that sound remotely close to each other, to my ears, are Mosquito and Bleeding, and even then it's only that both opted to include some groove/funk elements - they're still fairly distinct from one another, and only similar in the context of their other albums all being so totally single-minded. Still, the core progressive elements have been retained across the band's three-plus-decade career now spanning five albums, this being their first in over twenty years. A modern production and some modern elements have been included, but it's still Psychotic Waltz in all the right ways. In fact, I would argue that The God-Shaped Void is their best album since 1992's Into the Everflow, only very narrowly being beaten out by that album, though I would say that Into the Everflow, Bleeding, and The God-Shaped Void are all pretty similar in quality, with A Social Grace far above and Mosquito a bit below.

The context of their greater discography aside, what does this offering bring to the table? It retains the more accessible aspects of the band's later two '90s albums, yet as always brings a level of deep maturity to the table, and eschews any groove elements for what I would say seems most influenced by progressive rock and modern progressive metal, the latter of which is somewhat ironic given that Psychotic Waltz themselves predate the style, but of course they pull from a myriad of influences, and never sound derivative or even really strongly resemble any other band or bands, with the exception of the last track, "In the Silence," which sounds like something of an homage to Blue Oyster Cult, though it's highly possible I'm overplaying the similarities there. In fact, I'd say it draws the least from a single genre of any Psychotic Waltz album, as the first had a large helping of thrash, the second psychedelic rock, and the third and fourth groove/funk.

Frontman and vocalist Buddy Lackey, AKA Devon Graves, is in top form here, though he doesn't go as over-the-top as he did in the first two albums, which wouldn't really fit with the somewhat detached, mechanical feel through much of the album. Though I think calling it "restrained" would be an overstatement, the album is certainly more interested in being reflective and ethereal than aggressive or energetic. It relies on simple yet powerful riffs and, for the most part, fairly stripped-down songwriting to really let the atmospheres and ideas shine through, which works almost surprisingly well, a technique few bands pull off well and one that really requires an unusual level of songwriting mastery to succeed at.

Lyrically, the album mostly consists of (very intelligently posed) philosophical and societal commentary, something the band isn't a stranger to, and while the stream-of-consciousness introspection present throughout most of their discography returns here as well, the former is present here more than in previous albums. This is fine as Graves is a master lyricist and I'd probably love him writing about just about anything (though as mentioned elsewhere, "Spanish castle cream" from Mosquito was a bit naff) , though I probably do prefer the self-reflective/introspective stuff personally.

Overall, I really can't say there are any standout tracks, which is testament to the album's consistency, though some are slightly better than others and there are certainly passages within songs that I find especially sublime (the acoustic outro to "Devils and Angels" comes to mind). The only real complaint I have is that there is a clear lack of ambition compared to something like A Social Grace, the band never straying too far from the formula and it's as close as the band have come to putting out a "safe" record, though it's certainly far from that outside the context of the band. There's a bit of a lack of variance stylistically as well, with a lot of midpaced rockers, but ultimately it rarely feels repetitive and these are pretty minor quips. For fans of Psychotic Waltz, progressive metal, or anyone curious about anything I've described here, this is really quite a strong offering and a refreshing comeback I hope is followed up on sometime in the not-too-distant future. Psychotic Waltz remains one of the best bands progressive metal has to offer, and have truly proved that they're capable of doing no wrong.

When a historic cult band makes a return to the scene after decades since their last record, it’s inevitable that there is a lot of hype around the new release. As such, The God-Shaped Void, the first albums in 24 years by prog metal icons Psychotic Waltz, has been praised long and loud in the metal and prog communities. But when it comes down to it, is all the buzz surrounding this release justified?

I don’t think so. To these ears, The God-Shaped Void is a solid album of robust, no-frills progressive metal, which flows away pleasantly and with a few moments of brilliance, but nothing too out of the ordinary and certainly not something that makes me go out and scream hallelujah. This is not to say that this is a bad or worthless album. To the contrary, The God-Shaped Void is a very pleasant and well-constructed album (and it would have been hard to expect otherwise given the amount of talent and experience the band oozes), but in my opinion it simply isn’t the masterpiece that some people make it to be.

The roots of the album lie firmly in the classic prog metal tradition: chunky distorted guitars offer a wealth of powerful, headbangable riffs, readily balanced by a healthy dose of tasty melodic twin leads. Meanwhile, the rhythm section offers a very robust and tight backdrop, with plenty of fills and rolls, albeit the tempos are never likely to quicken the pulse. There are also synths and keyboards appearing in some of the songs but more as background than lead instruments. Overall, the sound is very tight and focused - also thanks to the excellent modern production by master Jens Bogren. Singer Buddy Lackey (aka Devon Graves) provides the usual dose of vocal histrionics. His vocal delivery is truly unique in the (prog) metal scene and is one of the few voices in metal that is truly instantly recognizable. As usual, his singing is charismatic and mysterious, yet very melodic and catchy especially when it opens up in the choruses.

Structure-wise, the songs do not leave space for many surprises. We have fairly traditional metal song structure, with lots of emphasis on the alternation between softer verses and powerful choruses, the inevitable instrumental break with guitar solo, and a coda or middle-eight to make things a little less monotonous. Nothing ground-breaking or that we have not heard before, but nevertheless quite effective.

The latter sentence is probably the best way to summarize my feelings towards this album. Most of the songs on The God-Shaped Void are effective, crunchy headbangers, but nothing we could not find in another two dozen albums released this year, probably. There are some exceptions, though. It’s in songs like “Devils and Angels”, “Demystified” and “Sisters of the Dawn” that Psychotic Waltz’s brilliance and genius truly comes to the fore. These songs are beautiful, epic mid-tempos, with lots of dark, foreboding atmospheres and sporting mesmerizing vocal deliveries by Lackey. These are songs that grab attention from the get-go and never let it go, because they hypnotize you with their dark, sinister atmosphere and their oblique melodies. Great stuff. If all the album was as good as these three tracks I would have rated The God-Shaped Void much higher. But, as it stands, there are simply too many ordinary and predictable songs to make this stand out in today’s prog metal landscape. Solid, but unexceptional.

The ultimate ball room dance champions… the moment I heard that Psychotic Waltz are back on the field, I immediately indulged in a series of guided meditation sessions, with the “A Social Grace 2“ mantra embedded in my brain. I subsequently changed said mantra to “Social Grace”, and later shortened it to mere “SG”… the shorter the more effective, sages say.

Regardless of the modifications made throughout this crash course in reality-tweaking, the desired results never came to pass… which left me with two major frustrations to deal with in this life: first, that I have lost my knack at producing the intended outcome on this earth plane; and second, that one of my all-time favourite albums will never get a (socially) graceful sequel.

I don’t feel betrayed by the Waltzers; no, not by any stretch. It’s just that I thought, seeing the entire original line-up lined up for another stint, that the guys might have voted to take a trip down memory lane and reach all the way to the very beginning of it… which is by no means the case here. However, those who bled profusely with the last instalment will find few moments to complain about as this new outing is built on very similar morose doomy/balladic currents, but without any angry bouncy rides along the lines of “Faded” or the excellent “Northern Lights”. So homogeneity is the name of the game from start to finish if we ignore the melancholic gothic aura of the “Depeche Mode meets Sisters of Mercy” opener “Devils and Angels” which misleads big time as this album is not exactly about nostalgic dark wave-ish shenanigans.

It’s not about innovation and originality, either, the dominant tone established with the sombre balladic “Stranded” and the proto-groovy bouncer “Back to Black”, the instilled slow-motion (anti)apocalypse reaching an early culmination on the excellent soulful “All The Bad Men”, a great semi-ballad with stunning lead segments, heavy doom-laden riffs and an outstanding emotional involvement by Lackey. The latter is a shiner all over with pretty effective subdued attached performance, and although I personally miss his higher-pitched pathos-like antics from the earlier entries, I find nothing inherently wrong in their absence as the minimalistic, plain lethargic at times, musical layout doesn’t really require them. Said layout keeps reaching out for the doom and the ballad, time and again, the dark currents challenged by either more spell-binding lead pyrotechnics (“While the Spiders Spin”) by the always reliant McAlpin/Rock duo, or by sudden more dynamic accumulations (“Pull The String”), the epic, marginally more optimistic lustre of “Sisters of the Dawn” strengthened by a nice memorable chorus with Lackey again a major asset.

Lackey’s project Deadsoul Tribe will come to mind as well on a couple of times as that formation’s repertoire is built on similar pensive, anti-climactic foundations; and the better moments (the mentioned “Pull the String” and “Back to Black”) surely recall the awesome one-album-wonder The Shadow Theory, another stint with Lackey’s participation. So yeah, all good, except that our heroes’ products start reminding of others already released regardless of whether those outfits can be viewed their branches/extensions. In this train of thought, this new opus isn’t as effective and as memorable as “Bleeding” as this hypnotic non-flashy approach to song-writing serves a different purpose here: in 1996 it did well as a downbeat but strangely fitting epitaph to a short but glorious career… now it sounds like a belated sequel to its predecessor, intentionally buried, like the good wine, for quarter of a century with the hope that, once unearthed, whenever that may be, it would bring sweet memories of the band’s previous exploit(s). And it does, no doubt about that; it’s just that this freshly released dark saga is simply one of the many proficiently executed ones that pepper the music scene at present, the Norwegians Conception's latest a close soundalike from the more recent ones.

At the same time, one can’t expect Psychotic Waltz to perennially re-invent the wheel. The guys took care of quite a few spokes from said wheel some 30 years earlier, yes; but right now, in the 21st century, where every second new movie is a remake of an old one, for instance, it’s a bit far-fetched to talk about truly ground-breaking feats on the artistic stage. Such won’t be coming in draws in the years to come, that’s for sure, and one shouldn’t be lining up for the subsequent Waltz releases feverishly awaiting something outside-the-box… so one doesn’t remain disappointed, I mean, including the ones like me who keep hoping that some miraculous illumination will descend upon the guys, and “Social Grace 2” will materialize just like that, dissipating the thick dark clouds that have been keeping their artistic genius in check for quite some time…

until then I will stick with “The Blue Danube”, the famed Johann Strauss waltz… ha, now that’s a food for thought! How about Lackey adding his vocal talents to a Psychotic interpretation of this immortal piece? With his colleagues stirring a most contrived riff-vortex around them? I envisage a lot of twisted limbs in the ballroom on the next dance championship with this number featured on the playlist…

The God-Shaped Void is a construct of massive, seismic rhythms that crash off one another like the plates forming the continents at the beginning of time. Buddy Lackey’s voice, deepened by age but no less sonorous or haunting, wails over-top like a distant ghost and the drums are like distant fireballs striking the ground.

I went artsy there, but it pretty much describes the sonic makeup of this whole thing. The whole thing puts me in a real trance state. Every second is vital. It’s like you’re just falling forever, lower and lower with each track, into some strange spatial void – that’s the best way I can describe it. The band sticks to slower tempos to create this effect. The melodies are uniformly sad and spacey and contemplative, and they didn’t deviate from this with any other stylistic choices. Everything is essential to the vibe and mood of the whole piece, which is what cinched this as a 100% album for me.

The band actually did what I thought they wouldn’t and continued to further explore their sound. Many bands, especially when they come back from long hiatuses, fall back on familiarity or even self-plagiarism. But Psychotic Waltz’s legacy has been a unique one for any band, shapeshifting into different forms on each release, from ultra-techy power/prog into a spacier, dreamier take on prog, and finally into a groovier 90s-rock beast on their final works, and even the last two albums weren’t that much alike due to production and overall mood. All of it has made them a fascinating band for me, and I love how they’ve kept a consistent aesthetic and tone despite changing up the scenery and the landscape each time.

I wasn’t expecting them to continue that – their legacy would’ve been just fine if this was more of a tribute album, a treat for the fans. But they went further and made something, again, unique and its own beast. It’s a searing, elaborate epic, more metallic than either of their final two from the 90s, but also more doomy and focused on putting you in a certain mental place than the storied debut album from so long ago, which was more of a technical exercise. This one is a grower, too, with layers of melodicism and building crests of emotion and heaviness and wrath that reveal themselves on further listens. The heaviness is striking, but then you notice the intricacy of the melodies and layering on “Stranded,” the frail acoustics in “The Fallen” that contrast with the monstrous crescendo it builds into, and the clusters of claustrophobic riffs on “Pull the String” - maybe the band’s least friendly moment of their whole career. Every track has subtle, deft surprises; the writing is second to none.

If I had to choose favorites, “While the Spiders Spin” with its trippy, electrifying harmonies and droning chorus, and the mammoth uncoiling groove of “Sisters of the Dawn” might be the ones. But this is a whole-album experience. Get this one as soon as you fucking can and it'll eat you alive.

So, as you probably know if you've clicked this far, this is Psychotic Waltz's first studio output in some 24 years. This is, frankly, rarely a great sign for bands, unless your band happens to be Possessed. Despite this, Psychotic Waltz have conclusively joined the ranks of Possessed and made one hell of an album. Like, this thing is really good. It's only March, but this thing is album-of-the-year-territory good.

The Psychotic Waltz album this is most likely to get benchmarked against is A Social Grace (full disclosure, this is also the Psychotic Waltz album that I'm most familiar with). Pretty much from the get-go, it's clear that this album is definitely not A Social Grace. Traits of it remain, but this album as a whole is much more atmospheric, simpler, slower, more like Bleeding. This sounds like a bad thing, but, just like Bleeding, it's not. I might even go so far as to say that this is better than A Social Grace: it's more focused, whereas A Social Grace, while being a masterpiece, is frankly kind of hard to get through. Either way, this is a more mellow album than some of their past output, sometimes verging more on prog rock than metal. That's no insult, though, some prog rock is damn good and this is no exception. For how comparatively laid-back this is, it's got more emotion in it than plenty of thrash.

Perhaps the biggest reason I like this so much is simply its consistency. There is not a bad song on this entire album. Not one. There aren't even any mediocre ones, it's good material the whole way through. There are very few albums I can say that about. The amount of highlights on this thing almost beg a track-by-track, but I'll restrain myself and name just some of the really good material on this. "Devils and Angels", the opener, is a surprisingly ethereal piece, with an atmospheric introduction and slow epic chorus, but it also sticks a few good riffs in there, and a conclusion likely to induce chills. This album in general is very good at endings, most of the songs build to a positively electrifying point, often with layered vocals, before abruptly dropping off and launching into the next song. "The Fallen" and "While The Spiders Spin" are in similar veins, with clever synth work and a tremendous sense of songwriting. "Demystified" is a quiet and poignant ballad, much in the vein of the absolutely godly "I Remember" off A Social Grace. "Sisters of the Dawn" is probably the track on this I've come back to most often, with its combination of clever lyrics, good melodies, and (go figure) a positively epic conclusion. I see I've already named like half of the album, but I could write a few glowing sentences about anything on here, it's really that good.

How's the musicianship? As it turns out, both impressive and comparatively subdued. There's less random noodling, but there's also a lot more actual songwriting. Still, I wouldn't have minded some more really mind-screwing drum parts from Norm Leggio, or even a few more attempts on the part of the rest of our band to get our collective jaws on the floor. Devon Graves is still quite the singer. His voice has definitely lowered over the decades, but it's still quite impressive, and the guy pulls off some really good highs in parts (see the conclusion of Devils and Angels for a stellar example). The guitars pull off some good soloing here and there, but the songs aren't really about that. This isn't the sort of album that puts a bunch of riffs first and works everything else around those, it really is about all the instruments as a whole. So while I wouldn't mind a little more hyper-progressive lunacy, I have little doubt that that wasn't what Psychotic Waltz were going for here, and what they were going for has paid off spectacularly. On The God-Shaped Void, the band works in impressive sync, truly feeling like a unit, almost a hive-mind, with one singular desire: serve the song.

The lyrics of this deserve some highlight. They're as uniquely misanthropic as ever. Misanthropy isn't exactly rare in the metal scene, but the sort of weirdly mystical misanthropy these guys do is. Just about every song here is about something negative, whether consumerism ("While the Spiders Spin"), government overreach ("All the Bad Men"), or war ("Pull the String"). All of those approach the topic from a thoroughly abstract angle, but I reckon the meaning is clear enough if you read the lyrics. The lyrics are clever, ripe for a whole bunch of interpretations (the three above I think are the clearest, and they weren't exactly simple), and above all, catchy. This album has some of the best vocal melodies I've heard off a prog album.

With The God-Shaped Void, Psychotic Waltz have made a positively earth-shaking comeback. Diverse, well-written, catchy, complex, I could sit here all day piling positive adjectives on it. Bottom line: This is very good. Highly recommended if you like, well, music at all.

What have we created here?
Asylum of hate and fear,
Alone on a godless sphere...