ALBUM REVIEW: Psychic Rot – Backslider

Fancy 22 minutes of sludgy grindy hardcore violence? Of course you do, and Philadelphia’s BACKSLIDER have got you covered with their sophomore full-length Psychic Rot. Formed in 2008, the three-piece have released a steady stream of EPs over the past 14 years, with the similarly brief Motherfucker LP arriving to reasonable acclaim in 2016. This album carries on that long-running nasty streak, ticking boxes in the worlds of hardcore, powerviolence, sludge and more. Obviously it’s not exactly the lightest of listens, but it still makes for raging good fun in its own way.

With its tight runtime comprising eight tracks and two interludes, Psychic Rot keeps listeners on their toes throughout. Not content to stick to powerviolence’s most straightforward blasting, BACKSLIDER fill the record with plenty of breakneck twists and turns. It often grooves especially hard – right from the sludgy riffing with which the album lurches into life on opener Asymmetric Torment. This remains a central feature of the record to its very end, with final track The Floating Door mustering arguably some of the album’s most potent head-banging heft of all. The groove is almost SABBATH-esque here, with this eventually fading to a few closing moments of abrasive noise.

Of course, there is plenty of blasting on Psychic Rot too. Second track Pseudomessiah quickly proves as much, its flirtations with doom only accentuating the band’s most hair-raising grind. Later tracks Goat Snuff and Corpseflower deliver similarly frantic beatings as drummer Jake Cregger carries things along at a pace worthy of several speeding tickets. Even these tracks take their own turns for the doomy though, with the latter ending on another particularly swampy groove.

Lending BACKSLIDER much of their most suffocating power on Psychic Rot is the record’s top notch production. With this neither too raw nor too polished, the overall effect is one of constant, crushing oppression. Admittedly Logan Neubauer’s vocals may sit a little low in the mix at times, but this still works well in that it adds to the sense of a band straining through the muck and the mire of their own making. It also becomes clear that the trio are capable of more than just straight-up violence as the record goes on. Both of the album’s brief interludes reveal a knack for more electronics-based menace, with the second – as well as the closing moments of fifth track Bone Thief – also introducing some ominous acoustic guitar work.

There really isn’t much to complain about at all with Psychic Rot. Chances are you’ve heard records like it before, but the execution here is bulletproof. It’s a record that nails all the powerviolence essentials, while also embellishing them with significant groove and occasional experimental flashes. It doesn’t outstay its welcome for a second, and if anything its short runtime should leave listeners wanting more. That’s always a good position for a band to be in, and proof of a record that’s surprisingly easy to keep going back to no matter how little mercy it shows you.

Rating: 8/10

Psychic Rot is set for release on February 11th via To Live A Lie Records.

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