Here we have the debut EP from Amorphead who hail from Italy and play a modern form of death/thrash.
Psychotic is a 6 track offering book-ended by an intro and outro, cleverly titled as “Dreaming” and “Awakening”, respectively, leaving four proper songs. From what I can tell of these four, they have a slightly different take on the genre than the usual fare, relying more on groove and melodic bits rather than balls out thrashing and speed. Chugging, groove based mid-tempo riffs occasionally give way to melodic sections and searing solos. If there’s one thing they have down, it’s the solos. Each track has at least one, somewhat exceptional solo.
Their biggest downfall are the vocals, which are…not good, or at the least, average – very monotonous and boring. The riffs are also kind of lifeless and dull. Sure they groove, but they don’t stick.
The guitarists in Amorphead clearly have some talent as evidenced by their solo work, but they need to focus on writing some better riffs and convince their vocalist to try a new approach, or find someone new.
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find a new band name while you’re at it
on Jan 19th, 2010 at 10:00That’s the most polite bashing I have ever seen a band get. You must be a glass half-full kind of person, Larry. :D
These dudes must use that band name so people grab their discs by mistake instead of Amorphis’s. Lame.
on Jan 19th, 2010 at 12:24“You must be a glass half-full kind of person, Larry.”
Not really – I’ve written a couple scathing reviews. I didn’t want to go too hard on them because I think they have at least a little bit of potential, but have a long ways to go.
As far as the name, I thought about saying something about it, but it’s too easy/obvious.
on Jan 19th, 2010 at 16:22*looks at band name*
“It’s belly out of heartaaaaaaaaaaa-EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKS…”
on Jan 20th, 2010 at 18:01