Track Listing

Disc 1:

1. Ob(Servant)
2. A Calculated Effort
3. Slaves of Nil
4. The Shifting Equilibrium
5. Removing The Common Bound
6. Horde in Devolution
7. Blood Stained Lineage
8. Immortal Army Of One
9. Initiate

Disc 2:

1. Bonus DVD - Video Diary "Making of Ob(Servant)"
2. Bonus DVD - Live Footage from Amsterdam 2007
3. Bonus DVD - Live Footage from New Zealand in 2007

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #133454 in Music
• Released on: 2008-10-14
• Number of discs: 2
• Dimensions: .30 pounds

Customer Reviews

Caustic Malignant
As far as artwork, lyric concepts, and method are concerned, Psycroptic earns serious points for originality. Death metal is overwrought with imagery of, well, death...or Satan...or both. Psycroptic opt to take a more forward-thinking approach on "Ob(Servant)", lacing their futuristic brand of tech-death with images of interplanetary warfare, devolution, aliens, and the failure of humanity in the face of technology gone awry. But then again, this is death metal, so without the lyrics-sheet in front of you...

"Ob(Servant)" is definitely death metal for the 21st century. Even in 2008 bands are still adhering to principles laid out by your Morbid Angels, Immolations, and Cryptopsys, so it is quite refreshing to find a band like Psycroptic taking their own approach to this most extreme form of music.

All the players on board in this band are innovative in their own right. Vocalist Jason Peppiatt does not let his voice stagnate in one mode. He is all over the map with bellied grunts, angry screams, freakish rasps, and everything in between. Often his cadence and enunciation are more reminiscent of recent hardcore than death metal. The drummer is tight and, as is said in many reviews of this band, comes up with some interesting fills. When he does rely on blast beats, it is an interesting high pitched tuning which allows the blast to be part of a transition or flow instead of the basis of the song. And yes, that is only one guitar player you are hearing. Whether or not guitarist Joe Haley has a third hand, I do not know. His frantic playing, which switches endlessly between dominating riffs, muted aural effects, and jazzy free-form sections, miraculously negates the idea that seperate instruments are needed to properly record death metal.

The primary flaw of this album is it's lack of variety. Granted, this is death metal, so a monolithic sound is to be expected. However, when listening to an entire album all the way through becomes tedious rather than adventurous, then you have an album that will never bear intense repeated listens. Death (the band) knew how to make an album that was thorougly technical and brutal but still engaging all the way through. Yes, "Ob(Servant)" has some interesting stand-alone tracks like "Slaves of Nil" and "Blood Stained Lineage", but when the tracks don't stack up to create something consistently appealing, the album can be relegated to backgound music status. This all being said, "Ob(Servant)" is still an immensely fun album to play.

To end this review, I want to say something about the general sound and production on Psycroptic's "Ob(Servant)". Much death metal uses bass and distortion to form a muddled, caustic, and claustraphobic atmosphere to the sound. Incantation (one of the greats) seem to of made this part of their trademark. Psycropitc, however, strive for clarity. The bass is clear, the drums are given space, and the melody is not restricted by a forceful rhythm section. With that in mind, the ground that many death metal bands tread upon is removed with Psycroptic. This effect contributes to the bands uniqueness. Rather than rage against the agony of life on earth, they race violently at lightspeed through the wormholes of eternity looking to evolve rather than decay.

Extremely Solid Effort
All I knew about this band before picking this disc up was that they were from Tasmania. And yes, this album is as tough as you'd expect from that average Australian stereotype of a rough and rugged people.

The only initial comparison I can make is "Arsis meets Death." They don't make use of down-tuned guitars on this disc. But the precision of the guitar riffs are wonderful and they do belong in the category of "Technical Death Metal."

However, even though the vocalist has a truly impressive range: Death-like hardcore to cookie-monster death metal grunts, to a black metal rasp, they fail to capture a general mood. It's great music to listen to, but there's something plainly "That's all there is" to their music that falls just short of inspiring.

My favorite track is "Horde in Devolution," towards the end it turns slightly jazzy and is in general their strongest offering.

There's nothing at all *bad* about this album, just nothing that screams *great* either; I would say if you're a tech-death fan buy it outright; but its not going to wow you if you're familiar with Arsis and Death. It follows the party-line in terms of modern death metal, they start to try some truly great sounding things, such as the jazz shift in "Horde," but they fail to fully seize the moment and move towards something new and different from the rest of the current pack of Death-Metalworkers.

For 2008 I'd recommend "Planetary Duality," from The Faceless, or "Awaken the Dreamers" from All Shall Perish for some really fresh takes on Tech-death, before picking this one up.

it is hard to pinhole who this vocalist sounds like
Psycroptic is an amazing tech death band from Australia (Tasmania). Jason Peppiat, the vocalist, has 3 voices in one. he sounds like a combination of Pete Ponitkoff, Chris Barnes, and Shagrath. I enjoyed the DVD included with this release, with the diary and the two live performances. this band brings to mind the Black Dahlia Murder, whose vocalist does death growls and yells. I am so glad this band signed up to Nuclear Blast because they have a bright future with them. the songs are hard-driving and short, and I really enjoyed listening to this band.