PSYCHO-FRAME
SALVATION LAUGHS IN THE FACE OF A GRIEVING MOTHER
There’s been a lot of hype and praise awarded to this album already. Not exactly surprising when it’s practically built to helm the next Myspace deathcore revolution, but you’d imagine more to it than PSYCHO-FRAME simply being very good at what they do. Featuring members of Moodring and Vatican isn’t that critical of a selling point, y’know. But with a title that almost reads like a parody and a sample from Resident Evil 7 as its opening remark, PSYCHO-FRAME’s debut knows exactly what it is. It also knows that gives it licence to crank up the action and show how deeply its legitimacy runs. In recent memory, it’s tough to think of a deathcore band that’s nailed that more.
To get the obvious out of the way, SALVATION… is, indeed, a heavy album. Though, leaving it at that is probably not giving it enough credit. PSYCHO-FRAME being hell-bent on brute-forcing their way from front to back proves more than sufficient in making up for this non-testament to deathcore diversity. ‘Brutal’ doesn’t come close half the time, not when you’re presented with a slaughterfest like APOCALYPTIC THROUGH LYSERGIC POSSESSION and the absolute, unmitigated chaos it inflicts. That’s the default for PSYCHO-FRAME, too, always reached and always searing. Even I WON’T BE THERE TO WATCH YOU GO—all one minute, 49 seconds of it—ends up a feature-complete rager.
It’s a mite overwhelming, granted, though you can’t say that’s not by design. With a combination of some of the most hellish gutturals yet put to record, and guitars and bass where the ‘drop’ in drop-tuning might as well send them to the core of the earth and beyond, PSYCHO-FRAME aren’t about playing with niceties. A lot of deathcore understands that as a general idea; PSYCHO-FRAME, meanwhile, embody it. Slaughter To Prevail’s tough-guy posturing isn’t making you fear for your life as much as SALVATION…, even at its worst. There’s a savagery to this that’s near-unparalleled in the current scene, at least not to the extent that PSYCHO-FRAME launch it out, track after track.
In essence, then, it’s one for the deathcore diehards, ‘cause there’s no way someone’s getting converted off this. SALVATION… finds itself freed of the marketing-friendly spin of its genre contemporaries, instead having more simple, dirty evisceration in mind. Not that there isn’t room for both, but a few spins will have you realise how serious a sweet tooth for something like this can be. For something as simple as bypassing the entry level, PSYCHO-FRAME have wound up as more than a deathcore band. Arguably, they’re becoming the deathcore band.
For fans of: Despised Icon, Thus Spoke Zarathustra, Orthodox
‘SALVATION LAUGHS IN THE FACE OF A GRIEVING MOTHER’ by PSYCHO-FRAME is out now on Sharptone Records.
Liv Sin
Close Your Eyes
You’d almost think that, with Liv Sin, Liv Jagrell is trying to create the most explicitly ‘okay’ metal band in existence. Here’s an act pitched between melodeath and power-metal, two styles with a floor that’s never too low, and a ceiling that seldom much higher. Unless you’re leading the charge, that’s pretty much where you’re staying, such is the case with Liv Sin. The best thing you can say about them is that the effort is there; Close Your Eyes isn’t an infirm or underfed listen.
That also leaves it feeling a bit long, as the twin fronts of maximalism in power-metal and melodeath draw any and all energy to themselves with barely space to catch a breath. Jagrell only contributes to that, pushing out her vocals at such a forceful, almost painful level; it’s not a scream, but more a raspy, authoritative throat-shred. It’s a lot to take in, and production that wants to capture the best of both styles doesn’t help when its results are just mixed. It’s a little too tight and clipped in places to be as exceptionally heavy as it wants to be. On top of that are the errant misfires, like how cuttingly tart the synths can be on Praise The Winners and Run, or how Scar Symmetry’s Lars Palmqvist on the title track sounds like he recorded his parts in a metal box.
That said, the title track also has the best integration of power-metal excess and melodeath might on the album, and is far from the only time that Liv Sin show off their proficiency. If you’re particularly a junkie for this sort of thing, there’s no reason it shouldn’t appeal, not when songs like Above The Line and I Refuse are comfortable in cranking up some added beef in the quicker, fiercer drums. Further broad touchstones include a credible pivot to straightforward power-metal on Louder and Shades Of The Sun, and in Hold It Together, a closer with the right awareness for symphonic-style scale. This definitely wants to be a big album, and despite a lack of swooping dynamics to throw it up higher, it’s hard to deny the impressive mass thrown around.
Altogether, it’s alright, though solidly in the lane of what it’s expected to deliver. That’s not a problem (if you remove all the parts that are), but Liv Sin are ultimately no more than your garden-variety Euro-metal act. They’ve got the look; they’ve got the feel; they’ve got the sound you couldn’t identify as them with a gun to your head; it’s all there. At least they’re lunging forward at a pace that benefits them, and works for them. Otherwise, mission accomplished, Jagrell—your band is very much, without question, okay.
For fans of: In Flames, Scar Symmetry, Kobra And The Lotus
‘Close Your Eyes’ by Liv Sin is released on 8th August on Seek & Strike Records.
Hammer
Trapped
Not too sure how the band name ‘Hammer’ wasn’t already taken, but it’s not the cleanest fit in this case. As a name, it evokes a swift, urban, bicycle-kicking form of hardcore, instead of ‘Malevolence-does-death-metal’ heard on Trapped. And with that, the bulk of gripes are out the way, because this is really good. Not that it comes as much of a surprise. A heavier take on one of current metal’s shining lights continues to absolutely rip—who in the world would’ve guessed?!
Well, okay, if you wanna properly nitpick, you could say that Hammer don’t quite have the same range or fluidity as their forebears. Where Malevolence have the scope that makes them feel even more nails-hard, Hammer aren’t quite at that stage yet. They’re unquestionably heavy, though; that’s not even up for debate. Respite is a rare commodity across Trapped, such is the devastation fielded through frontman James Andrews’ every breath, and the sense that this is a band who really know what makes good death metal tick. Built-in, mid-to-solid-paced heaviness serves as well as has since time immemorial. Additionally, a coating of hardcore grime is the next step to sounding even more mean and hostile.
And that’s essentially all of Trapped in a nutshell. On paper like that, it sounds a little basic, but that proves worlds away from a pejorative when you dig into the thing. At just seven tracks and less than half an hour’s runtime, you see the impeccable amount of focus on display in keeping this feeling weighty and significant. At no point do Hammer lose sight of where they are, so much so that Alive as a seven-minute closer remains on the same death metal track without losing steam. Some touches of doom help, naturally, but they’re a lot less common than Hammer’s own heavy brew and what it’s capable of.
Overall, then, what you get with Trapped is an exceptionally solid new addition to the UK metal canon, notably in the portion with the most consistently cool stuff to offer. A raging variant willing to stay underground is a perfect new inclusion, delivered by a band going in the right way with just about everything. Heavy music is always thankful when a band like Hammer comes around for that exact reason. It’s straight, dirty, uncompromising music without much of an ear for revolutionising, but wrecks from front to back all the same.
For fans of: Malevolence, Guilt Trip, Heriot
‘Trapped’ by Hammer is released on 1st August.
Words by Luke Nuttall
