OUR PUZZLING ENCOUNTERS CONSIDERED

Our Puzzling Encounters Considered is Psyopus second album. Psyopus plays the modern variant of tech metal which means it´s extremely dissonant chromatic guitar riffs which are generally played at the speed of light, very complex rythms, time changes that occour every second or so and an annoying singer that don´t know if he want´s to growl, shout or make pig like screams.

As you can probably sense this is not my favorite style. In fact I find this kind of music very annoying. The vocals are the worst but I also have a hard time enjoying the spastic rythms which are similar to the rythms played by a band like The Dillinger Escape Plan. There are also hints to a band like BEHOLD...THE ARCTOPUS which is a band I really can´t appreciate either. I´m generally a big fan of tech metal/ death metal but these bands that play technical music this way simply don´t sound good to me.

There are a few redeeming moments on Our Puzzling Encounters Considered and that is of course the musicianship which is astonishing to say the least. This is very complex music and it takes some talent to play it this tight no doubt. But there are actually a couple of enjoyable songs here too. Sadly the only two songs I enjoy on Our Puzzling Encounters Considered is the two songs where Psyopus don´t sound like themselves. Imogen�s Puzzle pt 2 is an instrumental song with lots of finger tapping. It´s more impressive technically than it is melodically though. My favorite song here is definitely the instrumental song Siobhan's Song which is really beautiful and even has classical leanings. It´s an excellent song indeed.

Even for fans of tech metal I would think twice before purchasing Our Puzzling Encounters Considered, as it is a very hard listening experience and as you can hear on my review it isn´t neccessary worth it. I´ll rate Our Puzzling Encounters Considered 2 stars for the originality and the musicianship. If any of these things had not been top notch I would have rated Our Puzzling Encounters Considered 1 star because quite frankly I don´t enjoy this album one bit ( only the two instrumentals).