MOSQUITO

I guess that Psychotic Waltz fans that have been waiting for a followup album to Into The Everflow couldn't have been other than disappointed by what they've heard on Mosquito. Personally, I haven't had the chance of hearing this release until only recently and I was pretty prepared for this album to be a lesser experience compared to the first two releases.

I can definitely hear that Psychotic Waltz have stripped a great deal of their mystery on these compositions, thus leaving us with a pretty straightforward release by their standards. Still, this doesn't mean that there is nothing to enjoy, but merely that the layers of greatness aren't here and what's left can in most cases be considered a product of it's time. Yes, I'm referring to the obvious comparisons to band's like Soundgarden and Jane's Addiction are clearly creeping into the band's otherwise very unique sound. There aren't any of the lengthier tracks, instead the album's time have been divided among a larger number of compositions that are 4 minutes in length on average.

My biggest concern is that there is really no standout tracks among this large number of compositions and those times when Psychotic Waltz decides to do something different it just turns out sounding average at best. You might have guessed by now that I'm not a huge fan of this record. If only the band released their forth album Bleeding before this one, then I would at least have been able to pin point the directional shift between their four releases in a linear fashion and wouldn't have seen Mosquito as a deviation from the norm that it is.

This is a hard album to recommend to anyone who has learned to love Psychotic Waltz through albums like A Social Grace and Into The Everflow but if you feel like the band was way too extravagant for your taste on those records then this record might feel like a nice change of pace. If anything, Mosquito certainly is a grower that will surely make you appreciate it more over time but just don't expect it to be something that it isn't.

***** star songs: Dancing In The Ashes (2:31)

**** star songs: Mosquito (3:14) Lovestone Blind (4:15) Haze One (4:36) Cold (4:25) Mind Song (6:08)

*** star songs: Shattered Sky (4:49) All The Voices (3:04) Only Time (4:37) Locked Down (3:26)