Somewhere Satan is smiling. Why? Because he’s in possession of another contract for someone’s soul. The victim this time is Dave Haley, the drummer for Psycroptic. It’s the only logical explanation as to how he can play as fast as he does. He’s not in a class by himself, there are other drummers out there that are equally as fast if not faster, it just means Satan is going to need a larger filing cabinet.
I’ve finished listening to Psycroptic’s latest album Ob(servant), and I’m going to come right out of the gates and say, overall it’s a good album. I’ve already mentioned Dave Haley’s drums. They’re pretty mind blowing. Not only are they fast, they’re tight. I say this a lot, but I think it’s worth saying when someone can play that fast and tight. I heard a live recording of Slayer’s “Raining Blood” one time, and it was all over the place. It sounded like no one knew what the other was playing and where they were in the song. We must have brothers in the band (although I can’t find hard proof of that anywhere), because playing the guitar and equally as good is Joe Haley. He’s fast and clean. The same goes for Cameron Grant on bass. My only problem with the album, and only because its a personal preference, is the vocals. Everything is screaming and growling done by Jason Peppiatt. I’m probably contradicting myself a tad here because I’ve recently reviewed another band that also had screaming and growling that worked really well for me. Jason Peppiatt does a good job with said screaming and growling. Far better than I could ever do. It’s not my thing but I can see how people who are fans of that type of singing would love this album. I think overall, people are going to like this album wether they like that style singing or not. I’m the prime example – most days I won’t give that kind of singing a second listen. But musically this album is really well done. It’s fast, tight, and the music rocks. For me that makes Ob(servant) quite listenable – growls and all.
Pick up Psycroptic’s Ob(servant) on iTunes and Amazon.
