By Ola Mazzuca
Technical death metallers Psycroptic are true Tasmanian devils that live up to their area of origin and expertise in sub genre. These aggressive Aussies deliver precision in their clean, refined sweep of virtuosic riffage and rapid pace. Their fifth studio release never halts in accurate tonality, showing pure focus on the goods; heaviness, speed and windmill-worthy tracks.
The Inherited Repression commences with “Carriers Of The Plague”, rich in tone and tremolo, filtering into the thrashy “Forward To Submission”. Despite cliché song titles and element borrowing from other mainstream techies, precision remains consistent throughout.
Fantastical, chaotic lyrics are spewed by Jason Peppiatt in a tone that’s more hardcore than pretentious guttural. This fits the bill perfectly for Psycroptic, as evidence of their instrumental mission is audible in the clean solo guitar intro on “Deprivation” and colourful drum work on “Unmasking The Traitors”.
Upon first listen, Psycroptic sound like the spawn of Decapitated and Nile, which is why it’s no surprise that they’ve toured with both. Yes, this sound has been practiced and produced times before, but the recycling process doesn’t make the record a boring listen. Psycroptic respect the art of their progenitors in an attempt to make it their own. They’re far from an only child mentality as everyone in this band gets their time to shine.
(Nuclear Blast)
