Customer Reviews

Ob (Servant) (Bonus Dvd)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Psycroptic's fourth album is also its most accomplished album to date. Which is saying a lot of a band that puts more creative and performative work into each and every song than most bands put into an entire album.

For anyone looking for death metal that is more complex than your standard "strophe 1- strophe 2- chorus- strophe 3- chorus- chorus"-structured songs, Ob(Servant) is a treat. The danger with technical metal is that it can easily degenerate into silliness, absurdity, and musical unintelligibility. Not so with Psycroptic and this album.

Ob(Servant), like Psycroptic's previous efforts, is delightfully complex and rich, while being extremely listeneable. I like to think of it as Carcass' Necroticism album on steroids. It is powerful, brutal, relentless. Music you can headbang to and jump up and down- as opposed to most technical death metal acts that when performed live force the audience to stand around- or get a beer out of boredom. While some songs may start or end on a slower note, it doesn't take long for things to kick into high gear.

Each song works great as a whole, with plenty of memorable moments. Or they can be heard while focusing only on either the drums or the guitar. One will discover a treasure of musicianship. On a video the band says that they tried to keep things interesting. And they succeeded. For once a drummer makes full use of the drum kit- during every song- and every minute. Every part of it and every cymbal is used. The same is the case with the varied guitar work that thankfully sticks mostly to low notes and gives us one great riff after another. And herein lies the wonder of this album. It has in my opinion unlimited re-listeneability. Everytime one listens to it, one discovers something new, some bit one hasn't noticed before and one is amazed at the skill of the guitarist and drummer.

The vocals work as the rest of the instruments- they also doesn't stick to one pitch but vary in range throughout each song. As fan of death metal I prefer deep growls over higher pitch screams, however, these vocals fit perfectly with the music.

Ordinarily I don't pay attention to lyrics but I was curious to follow along with the vocalist here and what stood out is that these lyrics are interesting. They are Lovecraftian in that they present a vision were humans are insignificant. We are addressed by some timeless beings to whom we mean nothing. Adding to the transcendental nature of the lyrics are sounds and effects that sound like they come from another dimension that act as intros or outros to some songs.

Things start out mercylessly with the song Ob(Servant) an absolute tour-de-force and ends similarly strong with the video-single Initiate. There isn't a single bad or mediocre song here.

The production is near perfect. Music like this doesn't work as a muddled mess of deep distorted noise. Everything is crystal clear so much so that you can easily listen to it with in the car with the windows down, something that can't be said for most death metal albums. I would have liked to be able to hear the bass just a bit more. But on the other hand, I'm content that Psycroptic doesn't fall into the technical death metal trap of letting the bass stand out too much while playing some incongruous melody of its own.

Psycroptic ranks among the truly great death metal bands of all time. They create unique music of very high quality and craft that you cannot confuse with anything else out there. Ob(Servant) is one of the two finest albums of 2008.

As far as artwork, lyric concepts, and method are concerned, Psycroptic earns serious points for originality. Death metal is overwrought with imagery of, well, death...or Satan...or both. Psycroptic opt to take a more forward-thinking approach on "Ob(Servant)", lacing their futuristic brand of tech-death with images of interplanetary warfare, devolution, aliens, and the failure of humanity in the face of technology gone awry. But then again, this is death metal, so without the lyrics-sheet in front of you...

"Ob(Servant)" is definitely death metal for the 21st century. Even in 2008 bands are still adhering to principles laid out by your Morbid Angels, Immolations, and Cryptopsys, so it is quite refreshing to find a band like Psycroptic taking their own approach to this most extreme form of music.

All the players on board in this band are innovative in their own right. Vocalist Jason Peppiatt does not let his voice stagnate in one mode. He is all over the map with bellied grunts, angry screams, freakish rasps, and everything in between. Often his cadence and enunciation are more reminiscent of recent hardcore than death metal. The drummer is tight and, as is said in many reviews of this band, comes up with some interesting fills. When he does rely on blast beats, it is an interesting high pitched tuning which allows the blast to be part of a transition or flow instead of the basis of the song. And yes, that is only one guitar player you are hearing. Whether or not guitarist Joe Haley has a third hand, I do not know. His frantic playing, which switches endlessly between dominating riffs, muted aural effects, and jazzy free-form sections, miraculously negates the idea that seperate instruments are needed to properly record death metal.

The primary flaw of this album is it's lack of variety. Granted, this is death metal, so a monolithic sound is to be expected. However, when listening to an entire album all the way through becomes tedious rather than adventurous, then you have an album that will never bear intense repeated listens. Death (the band) knew how to make an album that was thorougly technical and brutal but still engaging all the way through. Yes, "Ob(Servant)" has some interesting stand-alone tracks like "Slaves of Nil" and "Blood Stained Lineage", but when the tracks don't stack up to create something consistently appealing, the album can be relegated to backgound music status. This all being said, "Ob(Servant)" is still an immensely fun album to play.

To end this review, I want to say something about the general sound and production on Psycroptic's "Ob(Servant)". Much death metal uses bass and distortion to form a muddled, caustic, and claustraphobic atmosphere to the sound. Incantation (one of the greats) seem to of made this part of their trademark. Psycropitc, however, strive for clarity. The bass is clear, the drums are given space, and the melody is not restricted by a forceful rhythm section. With that in mind, the ground that many death metal bands tread upon is removed with Psycroptic. This effect contributes to the bands uniqueness. Rather than rage against the agony of life on earth, they race violently at lightspeed through the wormholes of eternity looking to evolve rather than decay.

I completely agree with the previous reviewer....this is the best DM album released from Australia and to be released in as long as I can remember; as far as tech-death is concerned I hold the opinion that it is unsurpassed, even by such bench-mark albums as Cryptopsy's None so Vile and even Suffocation's Pierced from Within!! The reason for this is simple and quite sad really(that you cant often say it about more bands in this genre) Psycroptic have taken this over-saturated style of extreme music and twisted it into something quite definitive, distinctive and memorable. The songs on display here are well crafted and mind bogglingly technical, yet they never descend into mere fret-board wankery.

Vocalist Jason Peppiatt gives one hell of a performance, vocals aside though Ob(Servant) is another masterful display of this band's ability to channel their jaw-dropping musicianship into truly memorable strings of riffs, which is what really sets this band apart from the pack. Guitarist Joe Haley's distinctively jerky, stop-start style is still as mesmerizing as it's always been, but this time it sounds like more effort was put into giving the songs continuity. Songs like "Ob(Servant)" and "Immortal Army of One", while still being incredibly complex are thematically held together by some incredibly catchy riffing segments that show a clear progression. You also have songs like "A Calculated Effort" and "Slaves of Nil" which sees Psycroptic venturing into lengthier, more epic territory with similarly impressive results.

While this band has always struggled in the past with maintaining interest throughout the mid-section of the album, they reverse that trend this time around by delivering some of their strongest material during the middle few tracks, particularly the atmospheric song "The Shifting Equilibrium" which has a nice groove and the slightly more subdued, yet no less effective "Horde In Devolution" (which ushers in one of the coolest riffs I've ever heard at the 1:16 mark). brutal, original, dazzling in it's technicality, but never distracting and I can't stop playing it. It rules. Buy it. The bonus dvd was also fantastic, you get one short making of Ob(servant) feature and two awesome live shows from Down Under.

Psycroptic is an amazing tech death band from Australia (Tasmania). Jason Peppiat, the vocalist, has 3 voices in one. he sounds like a combination of Pete Ponitkoff, Chris Barnes, and Shagrath. I enjoyed the DVD included with this release, with the diary and the two live performances. this band brings to mind the Black Dahlia Murder, whose vocalist does death growls and yells. I am so glad this band signed up to Nuclear Blast because they have a bright future with them. the songs are hard-driving and short, and I really enjoyed listening to this band.

All I knew about this band before picking this disc up was that they were from Tasmania. And yes, this album is as tough as you'd expect from that average Australian stereotype of a rough and rugged people.

The only initial comparison I can make is "Arsis meets Death." They don't make use of down-tuned guitars on this disc. But the precision of the guitar riffs are wonderful and they do belong in the category of "Technical Death Metal."

However, even though the vocalist has a truly impressive range: Death-like hardcore to cookie-monster death metal grunts, to a black metal rasp, they fail to capture a general mood. It's great music to listen to, but there's something plainly "That's all there is" to their music that falls just short of inspiring.

My favorite track is "Horde in Devolution," towards the end it turns slightly jazzy and is in general their strongest offering.

There's nothing at all *bad* about this album, just nothing that screams *great* either; I would say if you're a tech-death fan buy it outright; but its not going to wow you if you're familiar with Arsis and Death. It follows the party-line in terms of modern death metal, they start to try some truly great sounding things, such as the jazz shift in "Horde," but they fail to fully seize the moment and move towards something new and different from the rest of the current pack of Death-Metalworkers.

For 2008 I'd recommend "Planetary Duality," from The Faceless, or "Awaken the Dreamers" from All Shall Perish for some really fresh takes on Tech-death, before picking this one up.

I don't know about other listeners, but when I listen to this album I hear alot of death-grind influences, most notably with the half-shouted, half-screamed vocal sections. This being said, I'm not a huge fan of grindcore or any of its permutations. This, however, is pure insanity in a shiny wrapper.

Ob(servant) is very much a technical death metal album, but it distinguishes itself from your average tech death in a variety of different ways. Aside from the vocals (being the most obvious feature), you get less-dominant bass lines, drumming that doesn't sound like it was added for the 'noise factor' and incredible guitar riffs that come from *gasp* only one? guitarist.

This is an album you can play three or four times back to back to back without it getting old in a hurry. There is a huge amount of variety with this music. Ob(servant) is worth purchasing. The only complaint I can come up with is that the lower death grunts fade into the background enough that you can't hear them at times, even at high volume. This Tasmanian band certainly has the mettle to be a great metal band. Ob(servant) reins in 4.2/5 stars.