Psyopus Albums (3)
What The Critics Say
"So technical that the average human brain can't handle it" seems to be a guideline that Psyopus use on their third full-length overall, 2009's Odd Senses. Although comparable at times to bands such as the Dillinger Escape Plan, Psyopus manage to take it to a whole other level. Forget about anything that vaguely resembles melody; this is an album filled with oodles of guitar and drum gymnastics, while singer Brian Woodruff somehow manages to keep pace with a bagful of vocal tricks (death metal growls, screams, etc.) on such dainty ditties as "Medusa" and "Boogeyman." Although fans of very technically demanding heavy metal should get a kick out of Odd Senses, the average Joe on the street may equate it all to the sonic equivalent of a high-speed head-on meeting with a Mack truck. ~ Greg Prato, All Music Guide
'Our Puzzling Encounters Considered'
Release Date 2/20/2007
Tracks 11
Label Metal Blade
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What The Critics Say
The image of scattered, seemingly unrelated jigsaw pieces spread across the cover of Psyopus' second album, 2007's Our Puzzling Encounters Considered, offers a perfect visual representation of their chaotic, fragmented brand of arty math-metal. But of course there's absolutely nothing incidental about violently dissonant and Byzantine "songs" such as "The Pig Keeperís Daughter," "Insects" and "Happy Valentineís Day," all of which require an incredible amount of forethought, never mind musical dexterity, to assemble in the first place, and then keep from falling apart during performance. Oblique song titles like "Scissor Fuck Paper Doll" and "Whore Meet Liar" also reflect the often impenetrable, dada-ist nature of Psyopus' lyrics, and it doesn't take a genius (although it may take a psychiatrist!) to surmise that Mike Patton-worshipping vocal freak show Adam Frappoli is the perfect creative foil for legend-in-his-own-time guitarist Christopher "Arpmandude" Arp's visionary sonic creations. Although the singer and the formidable rhythm section of bassist Fred DeCoste and drummer Jon Cole are all conspicuously excluded from Arpmandude's mini-orchestral tour de force on the Canon-like "Siobhanís Song," it's an instrumental of astonishingly gentle sweetness. Another, more intense, instrumental, the percussively intense "Imogenís Puzzle, Pt. 2," leaves one certain that somewhere, somehow, Frank Zappa is grinning; and chances are Uncle Frank would have gotten a good kick out of the musician in-joke that is "Play Some Skynyrd." In short: if music can be correlated to mathematics, this album would be an advanced course of Calculus or Trigonometry, so listeners too lazy to put in the necessary hours of study required to make head or tail of it should not even bother to sign up in the first place. ~ Eduardo Rivadavia, All Music Guide
'Ideas of Reference'
Release Date 10/19/2004
Tracks 9
Label Metal Blade
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