LOBOTOMIZER

"Lobotomizer" is the debut full-length studio album by Norwegian hard rock act Motorpsycho. The album was released through Voices of Wonder in 1991. Initially in a limited amount of 1000 copies on vinyl and then in 1992 the album was released on CD.

The music style on the album is rather eclectic and the band incorporate everything from hard rock, heavy/thrash metal, stoner/sludge and industrial metal to the mix. While I realise I mention a lot of metal sub genres here, I wouldn´t really call much of the music metal. I´d call it metal tinged hard rock. It´s artists like Soundgarden and when the band are most heavy, like they are on tracks like "Hogwash" (which on a sidenote also feature a longer psychadelic rock tinged guitar solo) and especially "Wasted", an act like The Melvins that I´m reminded of. The industrial rock/metal influence is heard in the heavy, noisy and repetitive "Home of the Brave". I probably shouldn´t have mentioned thrash metal as an influence, as it´s such a small part of the band´s sound, but try listening to the opening riff on "Grinder" and tell me that´s not a thrashy riff right there.

For the time the sound production is pretty well sounding, but it´s a bit dated listening to the album with the ears of today. Had the album featured a more "timeless" sound production the music would probably have functioned even better than it already does.

...because overall "Lobotomizer" is quite a raw, well played and for the most part well written debut album by Motorpsycho. It should be mentioned that the band are a three-piece and that they employ "regular" rock instrumentation of bass, guitar, drums and vocals. Nothing too fancy, just pure raw rock´n´roll energy. A 3.5 star (70%) rating is warranted.