To me, the career path of Australia’s Psycroptic has somewhat mirrored Poland’s Decapitated: 7 albums in, early career highlighted by a couple of critically acclaimed technical death metal albums, then both had a divisive vocalist change with Psycroptic moving to the Jason Pepiatt  and Decapitated moving from Sauron to Cowan then a slight style shift into less tech death metal realms.

Those familiar with Psycroptic’s Pepiatt albums (2006s Symbols of Failure on) will know exactly what we are getting here, and those that never really embraced his more hardcore/thrash shouts will still also not really embrace what these guys are still doing: more progressive, techy thrash, hardcore-inspired,  modern, Meshuggah ‘lite’ metal with occasional nods to tech death metal.

With the underrated Dave Haley still behind the drum kit, you know the drumming is exemplary, and the skills of his brother Joe Haley ensure there is a still a high level of complexity and superior skill. But still, the style and songs will be what determine the feedback listeners give.

The well placed 35 minutes and 9 songs stammer and stutter by with bravado, finger shredding technicality and a polished production. And occasionally some of the songs stick, notably when the band drops in some subtle (and underused) female vocal hues d (from Amy Wiles of power metal act Taberah) such as opener “We Were the Keepers”, “Beyond the Black” and the title track, as well as the album’s slower tunes like the double bass  stomps of the already mentioned track and “Momentum of the Void”,  second track “Frozen Gaze”, and late-album flamenco-y  flourish “Upon These Stones”.

A late 2018 release that certainly deserves some attention, but also more likely suited for die hard fans of the band’s  latter Decapitated and the latest Soreption album.

[Visit the band's website]

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