By Albert Mansour
Dysrhythmia is an instrumental, technical progressive rock/metal trio from Philadelphia that takes complex instrumental, heavy music to new and interesting heights. Psychic Maps is their fifth full-length studio album (third for Relapse), containing six new songs it clocks in at a little over 37 minutes in length. This album is highly recommended for fans of “new school” King Crimson. Tracks like “Festival Of Popular Delusions,” Reactionary” and “Room of vertigo” have all the flavors of the heavier apsects of King Crimson in each track. Making a well constructed bridge between metal and prog, Dysrhtyhmia continue to push themselves to new levels of technicality while also adding a healthy dose of complexity to this album, which was engineered by band bassist Colin Marston (Krallice, Behold…the Arctopus). A number of songs on here also seem to lean towards ambient moments, with long winding passages of eerie note selection and rhythmic tension. When they do this, the band creates a layered sound that is both evocative and refreshing. I honestly would have a hard time calling this metal as much as I would label it technical rock/Metal as they never feel like they push quite hard enough to be metal. A good solid effort for sure, but probably not recommended for beginners trying to get into instrumental music.
http://www.dysrhythmiaband.com/
(Relapse Records)
