Ah, my old favourite from the last millennium... This, Finnish death metallers Adramelech's debut album from the forgotten era in death metal music, year 1996, is one of the rare gems from those times. Adramelech featured a couple of Demigod members (this is a hint, if you didn't get it!). The band's name also makes me smile every time I put them on: Collin de Plancy's "Dictionnaire Infernal" tells us, that Adramelech the demon is, among other things, the supervisor of Satan's wardrobe! Jokes aside, let me tell you something about 'Psychostasia', and how evil Adramelech actually were.

'Psychostasia' is an album, that is simultaneously demanding and alternating in its small space, but hugely catchy and very solid without any ill-placed element. The band was able to match hooky riffage, interesting turns and aggressiveness of a tank. The band wrote tens or hundreds of brutal, mystical, domineering and headbangable riffs and spiced it all with good lead guitar work. The songs are mainly fast, but there's slower parts as well as atmosphere-dripping ones, too. Hellishly lot of double bass drumming is heard! The lyrics handle ancient mythologies (eg. Vikings', Egyptians' and Greeks'), but the melody lines are nothing like Viking metal or Mesopotamian metal ones, but truly old school death metal. At first it all might sound unvarying, but repeated listens open the album to its full bloom. If the band can weave surprisingly varying music in a pretty narrow space, the vocals are totally opposite: dry growl is what they are about, nothing else, and remind me of old Amorphis more than a bit, plus English pronunciation here is not very good... Soundwise 'Psychostasia' is organic, something like old death metal albums, a bit muddy in general and sounds like the band was playing in a tiny room. The drums and also, but to lesser amount, guitars are on the front of the mix, and the slightly echoed vocals, mercifully, not so audible.

Adramelech were a band that left their mark. They managed to come up with their individual style. 'Psychostasia' is not a classic, but definitely a gem for everyone who are into Finnish death metal. "Worship the corpse dead but dreaming."

Rating: 8- (out of 10) ratings explained

Reviewed by Lane
05/23/2008 19:49