OUR PUZZLING ENCOUNTERS CONSIDERED

Our Puzzling Encounters Considered is Psyopus second album. Psyopus plays the modern variant of tech metal which means it´s extremely dissonant chromatic guitar riffs which are generally played at the speed of light, very complex rythms, time changes that occour every second or so and an annoying singer that don´t know if he want´s to growl, shout or make pig like screams.

As you can probably sense this is not my favorite style. In fact I find this kind of music very annoying. The vocals are the worst but I also have a hard time enjoying the spastic rythms which are similar to the rythms played by a band like The Dillinger Escape Plan. There are also hints to a band like BEHOLD...THE ARCTOPUS which is a band I really can´t appreciate either. I´m generally a big fan of tech metal/ death metal but these bands that play technical music this way simply don´t sound good to me.

There are a few redeeming moments on Our Puzzling Encounters Considered and that is of course the musicianship which is astonishing to say the least. This is very complex music and it takes some talent to play it this tight no doubt. But there are actually a couple of enjoyable songs here too. Sadly the only two songs I enjoy on Our Puzzling Encounters Considered is the two songs where Psyopus don´t sound like themselves. Imogen�s Puzzle pt 2 is an instrumental song with lots of finger tapping. It´s more impressive technically than it is melodically though. My favorite song here is definitely the instrumental song Siobhan's Song which is really beautiful and even has classical leanings. It´s an excellent song indeed.

Even for fans of tech metal I would think twice before purchasing Our Puzzling Encounters Considered, as it is a very hard listening experience and as you can hear on my review it isn´t neccessary worth it. I´ll rate Our Puzzling Encounters Considered 2 stars for the originality and the musicianship. If any of these things had not been top notch I would have rated Our Puzzling Encounters Considered 1 star because quite frankly I don´t enjoy this album one bit ( only the two instrumentals).

'Our Puzzling Encounters Considered' - Psyopus (3/10)

I have just successfully completed listening to 'Our Puzzling Encounters Considered' en toute, and I am honestly having a hard time thinking right now, seeing that my mind is a little bit gone.

I like to consider myself as a pretty knowledgable and experienced metal and progressive listener, meaning I actively listen to post, traditional and extreme prog metal, and nowadays; alot of technical metal. Bands like 'Canvas Solaris' and 'Scale The Summit' are really pushing the boundaries of instrumental music, and making music that brims with both compositional and virtuosic skill. Technical music is a very involved process usually, but the music comes off alot of time as being mind-blowing and very impressive.

What Psyopus' music does is makes my brain liquify, and die away. It really does take the term 'technical' to new levels... But what it lacks is any actual music (music being something that sounds like... well, music.) There's no beauty in here, no hooks, no melodies, no real rhythms... It honestly sounds like the band could have brought a pair of dice to their recording sessions, and on the sheet paper; throw the dice at random and whereever the dice landed, a random note would be placed. Pair that with lyrics that no one can even make out anyways, and you have Psyopus.

The saddest thing about Psyopus is that they could actually be an amazing band, if they tried being a bit more musical. Any technical style of music requires alot of talent to play, and this band (with the exception of the vocalist) is overflowing with untapped talent. However, wasting such impressive skill and ability on unlistenable music just seems pointless.

I think I might have brain damage.

The mathcore metal mutilators of melody PSYOPUS returned to terrorize the world with their second album OUR PUZZLING ENCOUNTERS CONSIDERED three whole years after their debut. And just like on "Ideas Of Reference" continue their highly technical noisefest led by the avant-shredder guitarist Christopher Arp who frenetically whizzes up and down the scale so fast with his tapping techniques that you have to be nimble minded to keep up with it. While most of the crew signed up for a second album, drummer Jon Cole did not and is replaced by the equally hyperactive freakish pummelations of Greg Herman. OUR PUZZLING ENCOUNTERS CONSIDERED pretty much picks up exactly where you'd expect if you've heard the debut. It unapologetically bursts onto the scene after a brief ambient intro and pummels the senses with extreme technical wizardry and the insane asylum electrocution style vocals of Adam Frappolli who sounds like he's close to puking up his entire digestive system.

Unlike the previous album, this one has a lot more sound effects and while "Ideas" had a few segments of clean guitar jazz-fusion inspired instrumental passages, PUZZLING offers two time outs from the frenetic display of audio apocalypse. "Imogen's Puzzle Pt 2" is pretty much an extended theme of "Imogen's Puzzle" from album one. On this instrumental workout Arp really shines as he not only delivers all kinds of strange chord progressions and guitar tapping but creates a vast array of moods with ambient passages as well as shredding like there's no tomorrow. "Siobhanis Song" is the other piece that slowly builds up from an album defying melodic ratcheting up of melodic harmonies of guitar and builds to higher intensity. It is actually light and fluffy and one of the rare pacifications before the Über-brutal "Happy Valentines Day" jumps back into hardcore extremities.

Obviously this is about as extreme as metal can get with with musicians dishing out a shotgun approach of energy that is designed to irritate and annoy and create the most dissonant and hardcore noise there is possible but this music is not noise for noise sake. These compositions are meticulously crafted in their little nerdy worlds and can be deciphered with great effort. While there is nothing on this album that will convince anyone who has already run for the hills once they heard the debut, this is a highly unique album with all kinds of guitar tricks and trinkets being back up by the absolutely insane vocals, bass and drumming skills of the band. While for the most part you have to enjoy being the ball in the pinball machine that is randomly beat and smacked every which way in random and unpredictable directions, if you have a tough skin you can actual penetrate the musical compositions. While i really love this kind of music when i'm feeling like a middle-finger to the world, there is one highly ANNOYING part and that's the hidden tracks at the end that has a recorded phone message of a girl going on about sheet and when she says the word ANNOYING, it repeats for 23 minutes! And if you have the patience to sit through this (yeah, i did once and only once, there is an unnecessary Red Chord cover song ("Catelepsy") at the end. Only for the most adventurous audio abusers out there.