Review Summary: An excellent album that does not disappoint. While the line-up of this band has changed, the technicality and sheer brutality of Psycroptic's music has not.
Months before I bought Ob(Servant), I kept hearing of how great of a Technical Death Metal band Psycroptic was. Many times I kept telling myself "Ah! It's typical Metahead hype. The Technical Death Metal scene is so ridiculously crowded these days that they couldn't possibly be original". After hearing the bands name thrown around several other times, I finally decided to give them a listen. I will be quite honest, I didn't care much for some of the bands new stuff, because I had previewed some of their older stuff earlier on and noticed that the new vocalist , Jason Peppiatt, was quite a bit different from Psycroptic's older vocalist, Matthew Chalk. However, before I knew it, Peppiatt had grown on me and I began to truly appreciate this band for what they truly were: a truly brutal Tech Death band with an original sound.
When I first popped this album in to my PC, I was bombarded by the brutal "Ob(Servant). This song is not only just a hell of an album kick-off, but its absolutely my favorite song off of the album. It displays the band at its absolute best; showing the listener exactly what they are in for. This track really shows Peppiatt's very varied vocal style. One minute he will set off into a low growl and the next he will use this very distinctive shout. Not only does this add variety to Psycroptic's vocals, but it gives them their own sound also. One thing is for sure, Peppiatt is an amazing vocalist, and, in my opinion, one of the genre's best growlers. After he was appointed to take the role of vocalist in the band, there has been quite a bit of controversy amongst Pycroptic's fans of who exactly was Psycroptic's best vocalist. I, for one, believe Peppiatt is definitely the best the band has had. While Chalk is considered by many to be the bands best vocalist, I consider his vocals, while quite varied, still to be very normal to the Tech Death genre. However, this is just my opinion. Peppiatt just fits the band perfectly, however, and just really gives the band this truly original sound.
While Psycroptic's vocalist is quite impressive, the bands instrumentalists are its true shining point. Technical guitar riffs and licks abound. Fast paced drum lines, accompanied by blazing double-bass and ear shattering blast beats await the listener around every corner of the album. Its absolutely amazing how technical the instruments on this album are. Sure, its Tech Death, its most certainly to be expected, but I'm still shocked at how well this all fits the music without ever sounding like pure guitar wank. There is never one guitar solo on the album. This album is filled with pure brutal riffage, and it all sounds so amazing. The drummer also grabbed quite a bit of my attention, too. Very rarely is my attention taken off of amazing guitarists when I'm listening to any form of technical Metal, but the drummer grabbed my attention several times throughout the listen of this album. Everything screams technicality, and it all comes together so well. A lot of Tech Death bands have the tendency of playing so fast and incoherently that all of their songs just wind up all sounding the same, but I never got that feeling while listening to Ob(servant). There always seemed to be a good amount of variation between the songs, which is quite rare for modern Tech Death.
This album does many things right. I'm honestly surprised that it is not rated higher than it is. I honestly can't get enough of it, and I'm usually not a full on Death Metal guy. I like it every once in a while, but most of it gets so ridiculously repetitive that I just have to take a break from it. However, there is just something I truly love about this album that just keeps inspiring me to put it in for a listen. I suggest Ob(Servant) to any fan of Death Metal. This album will not disappoint.
