Genre: Grindcore/hardcore/death metal
Origin: Italy
Released: 2009
Website: Psychofagist
Label: The Spew Records
Uploaded: 20.04.09

Psychofagist have become weirder and weirder since I first stumbled upon them back in 2003. And with every new release they’ve taken one step further into complete and utter chaos, madness if you will. With their split with Thousandswilldie last year they took a step too far in my book. Not that experimentalism and progression is to be shunned, but it simply became too weird for me to enjoy. The optician is definitely not an exception.
This is so damn out there, I mean way out there. I’m not even sure how to label it, it doesn’t fit in anywhere. It’s technical death metal, experimental hardcore, intense grindcore, freestyle jazz, noise, mathcore, whatever… I don’t know. While I can appreciate their skill in delivering this highly unorthodox music, how they manage to sound coherent in utter chaos, I’m not sure if it’s music one’s meant to enjoy. It’s disturbing and uneasy on so many levels. Sudden outbursts of extreme blastbeats hints of their instrumental capabilities, as well as the technicality in riffing. But they’ve certainly beaten the hell out of every note, twisting and turning every second. There are so many tempo changes, so many layers of music, so much intensity, so much chaos. I don’t know how they even manage to perform The optician, it’s just so freakishly weird.
And that’s track one, which is just about four minutes long. What comes next is a live-recording of La ballata della repulsione (which I wouldn’t have known if I hadn’t read it on their MySpace site, no track titles are present). This presents pretty much the same thing; experimental music to the max, just without the saxophone. And as soon as this is over the CD ends, at six minutes. But the experience doesn’t end there as the video for The optician is included as a bonus. And it’s one of the most unnerving music videos I’ve seen, pretty much capturing the insanity of Psychofagist’s sound. It’s uneasy on the eyes, just as the music is on the ears. But to relax your spasms after the video you can also check out the live montage for Free-non-jazz powerviolence sonata.
As I said this is too experimental for me, but if you don’t fear progression and can imagine a mixture of Cephalic Carnage, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, The Dillinger Escape Plan and The Red Chord gone haywire, then this is for you. Keep in mind it’s limited to 250 handnumbered copies, so act fast if you want a musical manifestation of chaos.

Tracklist:
01. The optician
02. La ballata della repulsione