PSYCROPTIC - THE PULSE OF ANNIHILATION

We get the same Haley-helmed operation as always, guitarist Joe Haley writing and producing at his own Crawlspace studio, brother Dave locked in behind the kit, the Peppiatt/Keyser dual-vocal pairing carrying on from Divine Council.

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The Pulse of Annihilation is dense as hell, nine tracks of layered, maximal extreme metal, no half-measures. That's usually where tech-death falls apart, too many players fighting for the same three inches of space until it turns to mud. Nothing here is held back, but nobody's stepping on anyone either. Riffs everywhere, but never in your face. Drums are constant, but never noisy. Bass fat and audible, but never swallowing anything. Full-blooded performances, given room to actually be full-blooded.

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The dual vocal setup is the clearest proof of the whole idea. Peppiatt and Keyser occupy the same register, often the same bars, their signature growl and jagged delivery interlocking rather than competing. There's a third vocalist too, classically trained, sitting well under the mix, adding colour on the final chorus of "Our Pillars Fall", again on "Annihilation Pulse", and clearest on "No Blade of Grass", plus what might be an earlier flicker on track two, always tucked into the chorus, never once given the spotlight. This angelic grace against the annihilation is proof the same restraint runs through everything here.

"Our Pillars Fall" is an album highlight, and it earns that in its first twenty seconds. A hand drum lays down the pattern, then a classical guitar picks it up, fret noise and string ring over the beat, the room itself audible in a rare moment of intimacy the record otherwise doesn't allow. Strings swell in behind, a choir punctuates the space, then the band comes back in, the pattern restated on electric, and the full kit picks up where the hand drum left off, like it'd been listening the whole time. It's one of the best intros Psycroptic have put on tape, each layer arriving only once there's room for it, showcasing the whole album's trick in miniature.

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None of this works without the mix. Joe Haley producing himself means the person balancing the bass against the guitars is the same person who wrote the riffs. Every layer gets its own space to exist in, guitars cutting through without shredding, drums forward without flattening everything behind them. It's the same reason Peppiatt and Keyser can share a bar without colliding, and the only reason a third voice mixed this quietly can still register at all.

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Nine albums and twenty-plus years in. Psycroptic haven't reinvented themselves. They've done something harder: let every tech-death instinct run at full volume without any of it colliding. The Pulse of Annihilation is a masterclass in giving maximalism somewhere to breathe. On this evidence, there's no reason they shouldn't be the biggest band in the scene.

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SCORE 10/10

Reviewed by Ryan Lind