ALBUM REVIEW: Violate Consensus Reality – Psychonaut
PSYCHONAUT’s Unfold the God Man (UTGM) was one of the best albums of 2020. The journey that preceded it, a six-year voyage from their debut 24 Trips Around the Sun, was an enormous evolutionary undertaking for the band. Their first effort gave a glimpse into the colossal scale of their potential, but it was the follow-up that would finally unfurl the Belgian trio’s might; a spiralling world of progressive sludge and post-metal capable of making necks break and heads ponder. The thought of topping such an entity, even for its creators, seems a task of entirely insurmountable proportion. Fortunately ‘insurmountable proportions’ are PSYCHONAUT’s very trade. Their answer is Violate Consensus Reality (VCR), one of the most magnificent pieces of music to grace this year and undoubtedly the chime of the band’s finest hour.
In many ways, VCR and UTGM are two sides of the same resplendent coin, and examining such a dichotomy accentuates the brilliance of the pair’s differing methods of attack. Both are hefty, heaving beasts with fair shades of light and dark, stretched across canvases both serpentine and direct but each doing so in distinct variations. While UTGM flaunts its tectonic weight across a wondrous astral soundscape, diving hard into the world of the metaphysical, VCR paints a dire, crumbling inferno at the end of the world.
The newcomer has by no means been neglectful of the trio’s penchant for philosophical inquiry, but there’s no doubt that the tools have been sharpened this time around. In fact, despite its apocalyptic sound, VCR’s focal point lies in the formation of a new world, subverting the inherent separation of global hierarchies and forming a new, unified civilisation – whilst adopting a more violent approach, the trio have lost none of their depth. The result is daring and raw, and PSYCHONAUT’s bid for the European prog metal crown grows ever stronger.
Despite its relative complexity, however, the drivers behind VCR’s undeniable success are simple. Impeccable songwriting anchored by career-defining performances, topped with unmatched ingenuity with the proof, of course, being within the proverbial pudding – because where else does one store their proof? Marking its own fingerprint on the band’s catalogue, VCR unveils itself with a series of abrupt surges of brutality as A Storm Approaching and All Your Gods Have Gone hurl themselves from their restraints, the former warming the palette for indulgent, restless riffing and a volatile sense of direction before the latter, one of the band’s heaviest entries, leaves the mind shattered in a dazed mess.
It’s a wonderful introduction to the album’s distinct M.O and in a myriad of perspectives. It reveals the record’s appetite for more succinct, more ferocious numbers – that still pack astonishing levels of intricacy – alongside more grounded lyricism and, most surprisingly, the arrival of GOJIRA-size breakdowns and often-bizarre riff structures boasted on All Your Gods Have Gone, Age Of Separation and A Pacifist’s Guide To Violence. A lovingly warm welcome to this desolate world of fire and brimstone with even production notes feeling degrees colder than its predecessor – a fine match for the LP’s intoxicating rage.
The raging waters are thankfully tempered with the tranquil balance of the album’s great epics including the title track and mammoth closer Towards The Edge. Both are winding roads of progressive splendour and, while both containing moments of suppressed rage, serve as a reminder of PSYCHONAUT’s talents in conjuring pure bliss for the mind and ears. The same guitars that once shattered the earth become a gentle perch for thoughts to rest and unwind.
The majesty could only be conjured by three beings of great talent and the trio’s performances remain ever-eye-widening. PSYCHONAUT operate with a brand that teeters on the edge of organic and mechanic – they flow so effortlessly between puzzling arrangements as salmon navigates a current, but attack with the engineered cruelty of the bear that hunts that same stream. VCR sees these animal instincts untethered with a brilliant lack of mercy. No sharper are the band’s swords honed than in A Pacifist’s Guide To Violence. A track that literally charges from the gates with a cavalry of snapping drums and urgent guitars and is called to action by one of vocalist Stefan De Graef’s most vigorous cries; this is the sound of anger.
If there has to be a shortcoming then, despite its great efforts to open up the album’s palette, A Storm Approaching does feel an ever so slight hitch compared to its counterparts. The instrumentation and overarching flow are of less interest, especially compared to the right hook that immediately follows, but this is still only the dullest diamond of the bunch – by no means bad, nor even below average, just not magnificent.
PSYCHONAUT’s Unfold the God Man was one of the best albums of 2020, and two years later Violate Consensus Reality allows history to repeat itself. The band remain untouchable in their craft and immeasurable in potential. If this is PSYCHONAUT at their peak then so be it, but if the bar is set to be raised higher, no-one is ready.
Rating: 9/10
Violate Consensus Reality is set for release on October 28th via Pelagic Records.
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