Customer Reviews

Psychotica

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

 

 

My first thought of this band was, "Aren't those the guys who painted themselves blue and danced, screaming and half-naked, at Lollapalooza?" They were.

Something about the sheer insanity of the album first attracted me, but lying underneath the personality excess that gives the band its name is an emotional intensity rarely felt in this genre. I say "felt" because this is music that digs deeply into the listener. While Gary Numan and David Bowie spend most of their time in space, ocassionally delving into loneliness or shallow lust, Pat Briggs, Tommy, Reeka and Ena run the range of emotional experience.

The hard-driving, alienated "Ice Planet Hell" and "Starf***er Love" set the tone that this is a sonic experience far-removed from your daily soundtrack. The complex "Barcelona" allows rhythm and melody to expand, contract, and intertwine, starting from a simple few acoustic chords, until it reaches an epic-feeling climax, not unlike running with the bulls in Pamplona, only to be gored within inches of the finish. In contrast to the uber-glam power of "New Man" (featuring Pat's incredible vocal crescendos), "The Little Prince" develops from a mellow foil into a gripping cry of isolation.

The insane "Stop" and the band's cover of Devo's "Freedom of Choice" give an energy boost to the center of the album.

What kept the album from earning a 5th star was the incomplete concept that tried to unify the songs. Intertwined within the full-length tracks were bits and pieces that were trying to make a statement but never quite did. "worship" is a backwards scream, echoed several times over with a bass playing backwards in the background. "the sleep" is the strangest track on the entire album - in between the hard-grinding "Flesh and Bone" and the spiraling "180 degrees," the sleep is a minute and a half piano-and-cello melody, very slow, the type of thing you would play when trying to get an infant to settle down. The album finishes very nicely, however, with "the awakening," a quasi-mystical piece that should be listened to on repeat under the glow of blacklights and highlighters.

This is another case of an underrated band that should have been much bigger. I saw Psychotica play live in Dallas on the tour for this album. Pat was amazing and was also a very nice guy when I spoke with him after the show. The songs are electrifying, wild, insane and free. Their cover of Devo's "Freedom of Choice," is fantastic. My favorites on the album are "Ice Planet Hell", about tough breaks in life and some of his friends dying of AIDS, "Stop," which is about someone doing him very wrong, "Freedom of Choice" and "What is God?", which questions religion and religious values. Unfortunately, Psychotica's second album was weak. They then recorded a third album which was great but never got released due to Red Ant records going bankrupt and not releasing the master tapes. Psychotic broke up shortly after. This album is excellent if you have liberal tastes and like wild glam rock.

This is an amazing record that I have no idea why it wasn't a bigger success. This is pre-Mechanical Animals era by Marilyn Manson, who after hearing this album and seeing the cover to this album, one might wonder if Manson grabbed his ideas from this album. Perhaps a coincidence, perhaps not. All I can say is that this is definitly a glam rock-space goth album and if you liked Manson's "Mechanical Animals" album than your shure to like Psychotica.

Had it stolen a long time ago. So hard to find in store. Bought used and came practically new.

I am a huge psychotica fan. I discovered the band in 2001 right about the time pandemic was due out but alas it never did and pat retreated to secrecy. but enough about me more about this album.

This is without a doubt one of the purest most amazing albums in rock history. i listen to it daily. and even though i am not gay i relate alot to pat's lyrics which aren't very gay centered. These guys get labelled wrongly as a "gay" band because pat is gay. they aren't. they are a tour-de-force in rock n roll. if you can do what they've done, then you can say something but until then... the music on this disk speaks for itself. buy it and thank yourself after you do!!

from start to finish this is a MASTERPIECE!

GET ALL THEIR ALBUMS YOU WONT BE DISSAPOINTED.

Take David Bowie, Trent Reznor, Lords Of Acid and some Jamacan Rapper and you've got PSYCHOTICA. Pat Briggs has a great voice and it is hard to deny that this album has serious entertainment value. Not bad at all. For fans of David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, and the 'mechanical animals' era of Marilyn Manson.

well.... so cool...
pat's sob(?) moves my heart...