
Anyway, I forgot where I was going to with all of that. Some asshole on a loud moped distracted me. I hate those things and the people driving them. I'll go punch him in the face and then get back to the review if that is ok with you.
Right, that's that. Now let's dig into this new album by Finnish rockers The Psycho Season. This is one of those bands that does not seem to follow trends, something I can only applaud. Instead, The Psycho Season mainly seem to consist of old fashioned rockers who love to crawl into a rehearsal room and create some heavy music. That music is a blend of alternative rock, metal and grunge, enhanced by a dash of psychedelic rock.
The album opens with the song 'Ghosts' and immediately Alice In Chains comes to mind. That is a good sign and 'Ghosts' is a damn good song. Thick riffs, pounding drums and strong, potent vocals. It is like the glorious rock of the nineties is waking up again. That grungy quality remains throughout the entire album and highlights quite often. My personal favorite is 'Sky In Smoke', a brilliant grunge metal tune that reminds me a bit of Soundgarden's 'Rusty Cage', mixed with the previously mentioned Alice In Chains.
Perhaps that is what they mean with the album title. In their youth, the guys from The Psycho Season have been listening to all these bands. They learned to play their instruments by learning songs from Life Of Agony, Pearl Jam, Black Sabbath, Audioslave and so on. With this album they return to those roots, to that heavy and intense sound. Furthermore, somehow they have managed to make it sound both authentic and relative. Yes, there is still room for grunge inspired hard rock in today's rock scene and The Psycho Season is the perfect example of that.
Besides, if you are a fan of guitar solos, you might have a few eargasms while listening to these songs. The one in 'Under The Storm' is my favorite but there is brilliant guitar play to be found everywhere. 'Waves' is another highlight, a tune that somehow manages to blend sludge doom riffs with shoegaze janglings and again that muddy grunge sound. Oh well, let's just face it, these guys are fucking awesome. In 1994, this would have been a genre defining album. Today, this could be the soundtrack of a very welcome revival.
Serge