Rock In Review

Pycroptic - (Ob)Servant
Nuclear Blast Records

* * * *
4 Stars

With their extreme mix of Death metal, Extreme metal, and Black metal, Tasmanian Technical Death metal band Psycroptic has released one of the elite Metal records of 2008 entitled Ob(Servant). This album has an incredible overall sound that presents utter brutality mixed with groove and pure intensity. Before listening to this album, I had never heard the term Technical Death metal used, but it certainly has its advantages to anyone who likes the Metal styles listed above. One thing I love is the insane speed of the double bass by Dave Haley throughout the album. I though I had heard fast double bass with Black metal bands like Dimmu Borgir, but I believe that Dave Haley has truly raised the bar for double bass speed in my book. Another great aspect of this band/album is Jason Peppiatt’s vocals. He mixes things up a lot by switching between growls, screams, and yells. Overall, I can say he got a great sound for the album. As far as everyone else goes, Joe Haley really holds up his end even though he is the only guitarist as Cameron Grant successfully fills in the rest of the sound. As an overall unit, this bands sound is extremely tight on this album. As an overall album, I was a bit sketchy with the sound at first, but after giving it a good listen, I can hardly stop listening to it! I really have no favorite tracks, but I do like the ones like “Initiate” (Track 9), “A Calculated Effort” (Track 2), and “Removing the Common Bond” (Track 5) that each measure 6:00 or longer. “Initiate” is the longest at 8:01 and it seems to go through the most musical “movements”. All in all, I suggest Ob(Servant) to fans of Extreme metal and Death metal as well as anyone looking for great brutality in a Metal album!

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