| CD REVIEW Psycho Choke |
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Band : Psycho Choke Former Less Than Human guitarist Argiris “Argy” Papadopoulos had been looking for people with a likewize attitude towards Metaled-up Hardcore to start a band with, a search to which came an end in 1999 when he stumbled upon guitarist Panos “Bax” Bexevanis (ex-Fourth Dimension), bassist George “Phantomas” Thanos, drummer George “Montes” Montesnitas, and first singer Billy. Immediately agreeing on their bandname (based on the psychotic wrath feelings in each wronged individual), the lads lost little time putting a first set of songs together to try 'em out on a live audience. And only one year later the guys were found at Mix Studios with producer Fotis Demertzis to record their debut album Choke On This, which they self-released in early 2002. In early 2005 a couple of events overlap each other for a change in the band. There'd already been some tension between Billy and the rest of the band, an at the band's support gig for Soulfly the guys meet singer Alkis “Al Roy” Kechagias. Tensions with Billy leading to his leaving, Alkis gets an invitation to the studio for an audition, is immediately enlisted, and when the band eventually resurfaced from the studio 5 months later (oh well, there wére the occasional gigs, I guess) they had a full-length demo on their hand, titled simply Demo '05. The demo wasreceived with raving reviews, the highlight being named “Demo Of The Month” in the February 2006 edition of Greece's Metal Hammer magazine. Since then, the band recorded & self-released (in 2007) a 4-track EP titled The Last Moments Of Absence, an EP which showed an evolution in the band's sound. While still holding its aggression of old, the material “...at the same time combined great melodies and catchy big choruses with effective hook lines...” (from the bio at the band's MySpace). During Summer 2007 the and then films their first video with director George “Detox” Papaioannou, which again gained the band raving reviews from the Metal press and became a must-play in all of Tessaloniki's Rock and Metal bars. Over the years, the band made themselves some powerful friends in the Greek Metal scene, and so when they started the 2-month process of recording a new full-length in the spring of 2009, several of 'em had consented to making a guest performance on the album : Gus G. (Firewind and now also Ozzy Osbourne), bringing a solo to “Get Down”, Marios Iliopoulos & Olof Morck (Nightrage) doin' the same for the second solo of “Streetwize/ Caramba”, and Jacob Hansen (Invocator, Anibis Gate, Beyond Twilight) bringing background vocals to “Swamp”. Hansen also mastered the album at his Danish studios, once the mix and re-amping of the material was done. As a result, Psycho Choke's album has a truly shit-heavy sound, and it was therefore ievitable that some label would eventually pick it up to give the band its label debut! Now I haven't listened to the older songs (really guys, I didn't have the time, you know...I'm lucky enough being able to gather the info I hereby related to you) posted at myspace.com/psychochoke, so I can't tell how the new stuff compares to that, but the 3 songs posted are certainly representative for the band's current sound, with “Streetwize/ Caramba” showing the band in its least raw vocal mode, part of it also done in rap... with the band playing “semi-acoustic” with a tune that has some Spanish influences (surely?)...and only the backing singer singing in a rawer mode. On most of the other songs (“Obey” constituting the “exception to the rule”) you'll also find passages with those clean vocals, but Al equally goes into raw mode, putting the “aggressive factor” on a higher level. Musically, the band gives their Hardcore-with-Metal-influences (nah, you won't find me calling it “Metalcore”, when the band itself does not – I mean, I happen to belong into that all too rare category of music journalists whom show respect to the musicians' views) a Nu-Metal touch by down-tuning the guitars, which gives the album a shit-heavy tonality overall. On top, they gave the album a wacky intro (titled just so, it's got leanings towards SciFi/ Industrial Metal, and initially sets the listener on a wrong track) and an atmospheric outro (again, simply titled just so, it's a spoken word thingy with an underlaying Ambient tune, the origin of which will remain a mystery to me...not that it makes me enjoy any the lesser). Although I've already read a partially negative review for the album (and for once I won't tell in which major Dutch magazine), in which the reviewer claims the album's qualities are diminished towards the ending through the use of cliché lyrics, I surmise that the it simply needs multiple sessions for the listener to really get into the completeness of the album's material. Any music fans into the kind of stuff as described above are hereby pushed to go have a listening session at their favorite local music store. Those who'll comply to that “Call To Arms”, or simply buy the item at the get-go, will nót be disappointed...quite on the contrary. Although my personal rating is “moderate”, I fear that (given the off chance that I'll be able to give the album another run of listening sessions) Unraveling Chaos will eventually join the already large host of albums in my year-lists! You know, when you come across a such diverse lot of albums as I do, that's what wíll happen! 95/100 Tony. |