ALBUM REVIEW: The Cosmic Dead - "Psych Is Dead"

By: Charlie Butler

Album Type: Full Length

Date Released: 28/04/2017

Label: Riot Season

Somehow the band manage to make relentless repetition sound like a captivating journey into the unknown, packed with more subtle detail than a million prog metal odysseys.

“Psych Is Dead” CD//DD//LP track listing:

1). Nuraghe

2). Psych Is Dead

3). #FW

The Review:

Sometimes just one chord can be a whole lot heavier than an onslaught of riffs. The Cosmic Dead demonstrate this in style over the first half of stellar new LP “Psych Is Dead”. “Nuraghe” is a yawning 22 minute black-hole, a hypnotic mantra with an inescapable density. The track is based around a shuffling monochord groove that ebbs and flows between eerily blissful calm and outbursts of molten distortion. Somehow the band manage to make relentless repetition sound like a captivating journey into the unknown, packed with more subtle detail than a million prog metal odysseys.

The Glasgow astral voyagers thankfully provide a little respite after this epic mind-melting trip with the title track of “Psych Is Dead”. Layers of clean guitar loops and warm synth drones build up to create a wall of transcendent soothing noise. Drums are kept subdued and distant which help the band create an enveloping ambience reminiscent of “Beaches and Canyons” era Black Dice.

The calm is soon shattered by the closing crash of “#FW”. Another one-chord affair, this differs from “Nuraghe” due to its single-minded dedication to a pounding primal snare thud and guitar clang that builds up an unstoppable head of steam towards the albums close.

If “Psych Is Dead” it is because The Cosmic Dead have destroyed it and created something dark and intoxicating from its smouldering remains.

“Psych is Dead” is available here

Band info: bandcamp || facebook