Psycroptic: As the Kingdom Drowns (2018)

This is another album that, had I heard it just a couple months before, would have likely made it very high on my top albums list, possibly even in the top five.  It is that good.  First off, there is the amazing cover art, which is one of my favorite album covers in a long time.  I need to find a t-shirt.  Then, of course, there is the music.

I have long been somewhat critical of technical death metal.  I like the genre generally.  There are some great bands in the genre, such as the mighty Suffocation of course.  It got to a point though where a lot of bands starting getting technical just to get technical, throwing in crazy riffs, sweeps and scales seemingly at random, and forgetting how to actually write songs. 

The Tasmanian devils in Psycroptic though were always an exception.  They used their technical abilities to supplement their strong songwriting.  I have been a fan since I first heard them over a decade ago, but somehow I missed out on their last couple of albums.  When I saw the cover art of this release, I had to grab it.  The album cover did not let me down either as this is actually the best album I have yet heard by the band.  There are a ton of riffs, which is to be expected, but the songs are generally short and compact with great hooks.  There is a bit of a melodic sensibility that had been missing present here, particularly in the vocals.  The harmonization in "We Were the Keepers" and "Beyond the Black" in particular really grab the listener.  Beyond that, I loved the almost speed metal riff in "Deadlands". 

This is a terrific album by a band who has really managed to live up to their potential.  It would have been very high on my top albums of 2018 list.  And I want that damn t-shirt.