PSYOPUS

Band: PSYOPUS

Genres: Punk / Hardcore / Tech-Metal / Grind / Math Metal / Noise / Experimental
Related artists: Pick Your Side, Mod Flanders Conspiracy and Commit Suicide.
Country: Rochester, New York USA
Years Active: 2003-2009
Song: "The White Light"
Album: "Ideas of Reference"
Year: 2004
For fans of: The Dillinger Escape Plan, Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza, The End, Thumbscrew, Destroyer Destroyer, Bird Death, .Crrust, Tusk, Daughters, Between The Buried And Me, Ion Dissonance, Warsaw Was Raw and Into The Moat.

Label(s): Self Released / Metal Blade Records / Black Market Activities / Reflections Records / Фоно
This post's artist is from the June 2016 Mix. This is track #1.

You can download: the July Mix#7 right here or get the new August 2016 Mix#8 here.

The review could be just this, "PSYOPUS is fucking crazy. They play insanely technical and schizophrenic hardcore/metal with a lot of experimental wizardry." Maybe that's all it should be, as to review and discuss each song that I love and its parts would take more than a paragraph each and no one would bother reading it. So here's an attempt at efficiency.

My personal favourite release by the band is their debut LP 'Ideas of Reference'. The entire thing is a roller coaster ride through lightning fast math-metal dementia. "The White Light" screams The Dillinger Escape Plan with menacing and destructive riffs that sound like someone's descent into madness. Awesome guitar tones, notes, time signatures...fuck, just everything about this is amazing. The jammy interlude two minutes in is a nice departure from the absolute mindfuck of the rest of the track/album. That breakdown at the end of the song (2:55, to be exact) is unrelenting and all-encompassing. "Death, I..." is a five minute clusterfuck of tech-metal madness. Although the song begins with some Wishbone Ash sounding guitar that I liken to faeries prancing in a magical forest, 49 seconds in shit goes ballistic and takes the schizophrenic and unpredictable turn that saturates this track. The vocal-only intro to the second half of the song is pretty epic (2:12) and the subsequent foray into mathy and experimental hardcore/metal that goes batshit crazy from four minutes onward. "The Long Road to the 4th Dimension" detonates at exactly 40 seconds with frantic speed before crashing into an unreal breakdown and slide from 56 seconds to 1:12 that might be the best part on the album. At 2:19 the band gets their Dillinger Escape Plan on and there's no if ands or buts about this influence and sound similarity. The song finally disintegrates into complete and utter annihilation at 3:20 with more breakdowns and spacey, time-bending instrumentals. "Mirrorrim" is another track worth nothing because of its ability to walk a fine line between noise, Gandalf, black holes and demons with enough structure and melody to allow mere mortals like myself access, like those sweet palm mutes that close out the song and the screams of, "I'm your ghost!!!"

2007's 'Our Puzzling Encounters Considered' gets even crazier but doesn't get to the amazingness levels that I find on their debut LP. "Play Some Skynyrd" is a very short blast of sassy and techy anger that could easily have ended up on the band's previous effort. "Kill Us" is my personal favourite, as the guitars are crazy, as per usual, but the vocals really match the insanity and remind me a lot of Mike Patton on his collaborative effort with Dillinger Escape Plan with more sound manipulations, high pitched shrieking and sporadic placement. The solos in here are fucking awesome and delve into some damn deep breakdowns at 2:40.

PSYOPUS' final release was 2009's 'Odd Senses' which is pretty much an entirely new lineup from the band's earlier records but sounds almost the same. "Medusa" is excellent and mixes elements of The End with the aforementioned Dillinger Escape Plan sound. "X and Y" has a very trippy intro that is met with venomous snarls at 40 seconds and then shit goes nutso again and the guitar flies over everything like a blindingly bright hummingbird on speed chirpin' death threats at you. The end of the song definitely has some Tony Danza Tap Dance Extravaganza going on with all that double tapping and after accounting for the growls I'd say this steps into death metal territory.

A few notables:
- also released a two-song demo in 2003 called '3003' that I have yet to get my hands on, but both tracks ended up on the the first LP so I'm in no huge rush to get it/post it, although if you have it please link it for others

- Christopher Arp was the regional winner in a Limp Bizkit guitarist replacement auditions to replace that guy who died, Wes, I think

- they changed vocalists and definitely lost a lot of members
- the opening track on 'Ideas of Reference' is called "Mork and Mindy (Daydream Lover)", which I love
- try the rabid beast that is PSYOPUS and if you can appreciate it you'll probably end up loving it

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DISCOGRAPHY
Click )==>here<==( to download the band's complete discography in wma form.

2003 - 3003 cdrEP (if you have this please post it!)

2004 - Ideas of Reference cdLP

2007 - Our Puzzling Encounters Considered cdLP

2009 - Odd Senses cdLP

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(2004) PSYOPUS - "Death...I" (from 'Ideas of Reference')

(2004) PSYOPUS - "The White Light" (from 'Ideas of Reference')

(2004) PSYOPUS - "The Long Road to the 4th Dimension" (from 'Ideas of Reference')

(2007) PSYOPUS - "Kill Us" (from 'Our Puzzling Encounters Considered')

(2007) PSYOPUS - "Play Some Skynyrd" (from 'Our Puzzling Encounters Considered')

(2009) PSYOPUS - "X and Y" (from 'Odd Senses')

(2009) PSYOPUS - "Medusa" (from 'Odd Senses')

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PSYOPUS out of print wma discography download

(download here)

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