Review Summary: Coming to a cinema near you, fall 2037.
Planetarisk Sudoku is nuts. It's mad. Bonkers. Insane. It could make Ron Jarzombek blush. Whether or not this avant-garde monstrosity could be considered progression or regression is out of the question; it's the closest grind has ever come to being truly alien. From the very opening seconds of "BoLTZmanN BRaiN 2099" (yes, it's one of those albums), all the way to the last moments of 15 minute closer, "PsUDoPX.046245", Psudoku demand your attention, and with good reason. There is so much going on in
Planetarisk Sudoku that if you even blink, the intricatley insane sounds of hyperspace might pass you by.
If progressive, jazzy grind in space sounds like a bad idea to you, avoid this one like the plague. Every fleeting moment of
Planetarisk Sudoku is full to the brim with technical musicianship, bizarre instrumentation, and ridiculously comical atmospherics. While it wouldn't be a stretch (surprisingly) to say this is the most technical grind album to be released in the past 5 years, the band do have a keen eye for cohesion and structure over endless noodling. Each track manages to carry its own sense of identity, while simultaneously fitting nicely under the album's running theme of lunar lunacy.
The gents over at Psudoku really know the ins and outs of their instruments. Guitar work on
Planetarisk Sudoku is incredibly well executed; riffs flow into one another, and build each other up while also repeating certain motifs to prevent songs from becoming too crowded. Bass play is also terrific as not only is the low-end held down with a substantial level of authority, but the bass guitar also often acts as another layer of dissonance during more bizarre passages. The star of the show however, is without a doubt the drumming. Combining the unholy trinity of percussive styles,
Planetarisk Sudoku boasts the best mix of metal, jazz, and Latin playing that I've ever heard. Every aspect, from tight cymbal play, to sporadic rimshots, to blasts played in hyper-drive, is played with a level of finesse that is quite literally other-worldly. To top this all off, the production is hard-hitting and dynamic; every layer has adequate space and the band flow between quiet and loud segments near-flawlessly.
Psudoku as of now, stand in a league of their own. They don't take it lightly when they say this record was released in the year 2037, because it surely couldn't have been written by any present-day humans. The deranged nature of
Planetarisk Sudoku is far beyond anything that grind has seen, and will most likely remain as the pinnacle of grind absurdity for a good while. When you consider just how much Psudoku have evolved as a band since
Space Grind just 4 years prior, the possibilities for future work are frighteningly limitless. If you ever wondered what greying out under the influence sounded like, this would be it.
