P.S.I.H.O.

Pioneers on the Russian metal scene, this legendary outfit were up there at the beginning with Aria, Legion, and Kruiz, trying to find their way with their heretical musical stance through the hostile communist censure in their homeland. The perestroika brought such redundant regulations to an end, and the speed/thrash metal movement literally exploded in the big country in the late-80’s/early-90’s. And Shah were there again to bear the “fruit” from such benevolent developments as their debut was the second Russian full-length, after Kruiz’s “Kruiz II”, to be produced in Western Europe, and respectively to receive a wholesome western release. This was also the album that was sung entirely in English for the first time on Russian soil, also bringing the Bay-Area flavour over there.

Amazingly the guys only managed two full-lengths, the debut and the album reviewed here, as both “Terror Collection” and “Escape from Mind” were old and unreleased tracks’ compilations. I have to admit I was quite surprised by this album when it came out as I don’t know why I wasn’t expecting Shah to shift from their chosen old school path. This is far from a drastic change, mind you, but the moment the opening guitars from the title-track invade the aether, sounding like the most faithful sequel to Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit”, the listener will hardly feel jubilant especially when the continuation is nothing more than the jumpy Helmet-esque alternative with the sweet feelgood rhythms and all the rest.

It’s difficult to see why the band have chosen such a misleading, and hardly very appealing, opener when the rest of the album has very little to do with it; comes “Rhythms of Instincts”, and the situation improves immediately with the uplifting mid-90’s Megadeth-like delivery, nothing overtly old school here, but energetic and enjoyable nonetheless. “Open” is a more peaceful progressive quasi-groovy jumper, the clean mid-ranged vocals doing a fairly good job here; and “Turn on the Changes” is vintage classic Megadeth with the impetuous gallops, the clever more technical decisions, the stunning melodic lead-driven walkabouts, and the nice chorus the vocalist acquiring a warmer Dave Mustaine-sque timbre. “Final Vocal” remains in the same zone, a lively power/thrasher with more aggressive escapades that could have been a highlight on “Countdown to Extinction” even. “Terminal Point” overcomes another grungy etude in the beginning before the guys indulge in more diverse progressive power/thrashy walkabouts which seldom develop beyond the mid-pace, but deliver with their not very predictable configurations. “Trespass” is a short bursting ripper taken straight from the band’s early demos, an invigorating piece of old school thrashing goodness before “Through Inside” embarks on another more serious, multi-layered journey lasting for over 9-min, not a very dignified epitaph to this opus, the guys spending most of the time in not very eventful mid-tempo rhythms without too much drama or any other less ordinary additives to justify its inordinate length.

The not very convincing beginning and the somewhat ponderous ending are not very mitigated pullbacks, the band still managing to entertain the audience with a finely balanced old/new metal blend which may have benefitted from more individualistic ways of expression. Well, the band had never been the most innovative batch on the circuit, compared to the majority of their Russian contemporaries who brought copious amounts of original flair to the scene, but one shouldn’t deny them the knack of producing a cool epitaph to their career by not fully surrendering to the alien sounds of the new decade…

I guess this is also one major reason why the band have loads of fans, and not only in Russia and the Eastern European countries; they never really put a foot wrong along the way, not shooting themselves to the very top of the field, but staying way above ground with their heroic slabs of vigorous retro thrash the latter sounding convincing even when served with a washable patch of groove.