THE GOD-SHAPED VOID

When a historic cult band makes a return to the scene after decades since their last record, it's inevitable that there is a lot of hype around the new release. As such, The God-Shaped Void, the first albums in 24 years by prog metal icons Psychotic Waltz, has been praised long and loud in the metal and prog communities. But when it comes down to it, is all the buzz surrounding this release justified?

I don't think so. To these ears, The God-Shaped Void is a solid album of robust, no-frills progressive metal, which flows away pleasantly and with a few moments of brilliance, but nothing too out of the ordinary and certainly not something that makes me go out and scream hallelujah. This is not to say that this is a bad or worthless album. To the contrary, The God-Shaped Void is a very pleasant and well-constructed album (and it would have been hard to expect otherwise given the amount of talent and experience the band oozes), but in my opinion it simply isn't the masterpiece that some people make it to be.

The roots of the album lie firmly in the classic prog metal tradition: chunky distorted guitars offer a wealth of powerful, headbangable riffs, readily balanced by a healthy dose of tasty melodic twin leads. Meanwhile, the rhythm section offers a very robust and tight backdrop, with plenty of fills and rolls, albeit the tempos are never likely to quicken the pulse. There are also synths and keyboards appearing in some of the songs but more as background than lead instruments. Overall, the sound is very tight and focused - also thanks to the excellent modern production by master Jens Bogren. Singer Buddy Lackey (aka Devon Graves) provides the usual dose of vocal histrionics. His vocal delivery is truly unique in the (prog) metal scene and is one of the few voices in metal that is truly instantly recognizable. As usual, his singing is charismatic and mysterious, yet very melodic and catchy especially when it opens up in the choruses.

Structure-wise, the songs do not leave space for many surprises. We have fairly traditional metal song structure, with lots of emphasis on the alternation between softer verses and powerful choruses, the inevitable instrumental break with guitar solo, and a coda or middle-eight to make things a little less monotonous. Nothing ground-breaking or that we have not heard before, but nevertheless quite effective.

The latter sentence is probably the best way to summarize my feelings towards this album. Most of the songs on The God-Shaped Void are effective, crunchy headbangers, but nothing we could not find in another two dozen albums released this year, probably. There are some exceptions, though. It's in songs like "Devils and Angels", "Demystified" and "Sisters of the Dawn" that Psychotic Waltz's brilliance and genius truly comes to the fore. These songs are beautiful, epic mid-tempos, with lots of dark, foreboding atmospheres and sporting mesmerizing vocal deliveries by Lackey. These are songs that grab attention from the get-go and never let it go, because they hypnotize you with their dark, sinister atmosphere and their oblique melodies. Great stuff. If all the album was as good as these three tracks I would have rated The God-Shaped Void much higher. But, as it stands, there are simply too many ordinary and predictable songs to make this stand out in today's prog metal landscape. Solid, but unexceptional.

[Originally written for The Metal Archives]