Less than a handful of months in and 2019 is already looking like it could go down as a major year for startling releases. Adding to the growing reasons why we are suggesting that possibility is the new album from German metallers Sober Truth. It is a snarling, writhing tempest of the band’s already individual progressive groove metal but has breached a whole new expanse of varied sound driven by an imagination living a up to its title; in short Psychosis is one dramatically thrilling engagement.
Formed in 2007, Siegburg hailing Sober Truth has established themselves as one of Europe’s most intriguing propositions across a trio of previous albums starting with Riven in 2009. The quartet has grown and nurtured their presence and reputation release by release but fair to say major spotlights and recognition are set to be stirred given the required opportunity with Psychosis. The successor to their previous well-received full-length Locust ▼ Lunatic Asylum, there is no escaping a new maturity and bolder imagination to the band’s songwriting and sound within Psychosis or the richer fusion of flavours making up its boisterous canvas.
The release opens with Solitude, the song initially brewing its attack in the background before crowding ears in a rapacious but controlled swirl of riffs and rhythms. A potent coaxing, it in turn soon centres its trespass and drives across the senses as eager grooves align with hungry riffs, the vocal antagonism of guitarist Torsten Schramm soon in league with the ferocious incitement. Instantly contagious and increasingly unpredictable as melodic strands and invention entangle in the fury while variety enhances the magnetism of vocals, the song just blossoms by the second. Already hints of different styles and spicing are at play, stronger in some moments than others but all adding to the track’s potent imagination and character.
It is a stirring rousing start easily backed by the sonic tapestry that is Akardos. Classic metal lined progressive wiring initiates the temptation, a great slim but rich prowling gait emerging before those early hues inflame the melodic enterprise of Schramm and lead guitarist Aaron Vogelsberg. Darker, heavier shadows soon infest the contagion, the esurient beats of Sam Baw uniting with the magnetic pulsation and lure of Jules RoCkwell’s bass. New threads of sound and styles continue to be keenly woven into the magnetic web before Dark Valley takes over the enslaving of ears and appetite. There is a bedlamic edge to Schramm’s vocals which quickly captured the imagination, one which only escalates across the song as musically too it nurtures an anarchic pandemonium within its skilfully bred infestation; the result which is maybe something akin to Dog Fashion Disco and Mudvayne meets The New Jacobin Club but is truly unique to Sober Truth.
The brief atmospheric ally portentous instrument of Ode To Reality leads to the authoritative bait of Riven which subsequently embraces thrash metal bred enticement and blackened shadows to its creative breast. As all tracks though, it evolves and spreads into a diversity of flavours and endeavour, the song as the band’s sound, wonderfully difficult to truly pin down though there is something of a Fear Factory tint to it.
The progressively flamed, death metal flushed Horizon and the nu/groove metal webbing of Utopia only cement the album’s potency and temptation; both unforgettable escapades forged in the diverse furore of sound and imaginative craft from across the whole band before Sober (ReArranged) reveals a whole new side and character to a song previously found on the last album. As catchy in temperament and intent as the original, the song flourishes in the fresh creative winds which race through the band’s growth in sound.
Dying Dreams follows bringing tenebrific clouds over melodic and harmonic intimation before the album’s title track seduced ears with its enthralling mesh of voracious metal and gothic rock equipped with almost malevolent grooves and post punk starkness. At times the song sparks thoughts of The Mission and Sisters Of Mercy, in other moments erupts in an insatiable squall of dissonance and instability. The track is superb, and one of the album’s biggest highlights.
The album concludes with an Unplugged rendition of Collapse, it too a song first introduced on Locust ▼ Lunatic Asylum. Whether intended as a mere bonus slice of Sober Truth goodness or not it provides a wonderful conclusion to Psychosis which is very easy to be greedy over.
Sober Truth may have still been an unnoticed proposition to many but surely that will change thanks to Psychosis. Quite simply the album is a real pleasure of originality and heterogeneity which deserves all the attention and plaudits it will hopefully get.
Psychosis is available now @ https://sobertruth.bandcamp.com/album/psychosis
http://sober-truth.com/ https://www.facebook.com/sobertruthband https://twitter.com/sobertruthband
Pete RingMaster 14/03/2019
Copyright RingMaster: MyFreeCopyright
Next up is Walls away, a far calmer affair with a melodic temperament which captivated from its initial lure. It has a raw undercurrent though which accentuates its elegance breeding, that aforementioned unpredictability lurking at every corner while Slaínte (Salud, dinero, amor) has a Celtic lining to its infectious festivities; an Irish Gaelic inspiration which again had the body bouncing across its primarily instrumental canter sharing “good health”.
The opening instrumental welcome of the excellent Auf Bifrösts Rücken rises up with drama and suggestion, its orchestral walls cinematic in their intimation as rhythms build solid foundations to the epic feel of the surroundings. Yet there is a melodic intimacy which equally tempts the imagination before the album’s title track with the same kind of majesty emerges. Swiftly dark tides and imposing rumblings surge as the track erupts into a rousing incitement of threat and seduction. Wieland’s vocals, raw and melodic, alone spark keen attention, their lure matched by the tidal currents and drama of the sounds. Singing in his home language the tale of the song and its companions evaded recognition but there was no escaping the Nordic and dramatic clues to the mercurial and ever darkening escapade.
Best track honours are seized by Splitter next, the rhythmic entrapment of Gumpoldsberger and Stirner inescapable from its opening strains and only intensified by the rolling attacks and belligerent grumble of drums and bass thereon in. Spice loaded grooves and a general rock ‘n’ roll swing only add to the track’s might with only the clean vocals for some reason and for once not quite connecting. Nevertheless it is a storming encounter which alone could have sparked an appetite for the band’s sound but is more than backed by the likes of Aurora and Phoenix. The first is an atmospheric tempting with alluringly portentous shadows around a rhythmic resonance, a union beguiling ears and imagination before its dark side rises up in invasive riffs and sonic trespass. That also brings a melodic and electronic enterprise which suggestive mystique setting up the adventurous rock ‘n’ roll of the second with the added attraction of female vocals and melody encased endeavours.
It opens up with Lovely lovelie, raw riffs and imposing rhythms in league from the first second surrounding the subsequent vocal agitation. Acidic melodies emerge to line the intensive trespass, a rhythmically driven groove invading body and appetite in no time too as the song stands over ears with almost bearish provocation while undulating spirals of cosmic light simmer and burn. There is a primal edge and urgency to the encounter too, a waking up of the senses and thoughts which by its final repetitive shimmer has attention firmly hooked.
A just as potent rhythmic lure fuels the following post punk shuffle of Lush Box. Spirals of guitar and flames of sax latch onto the swagger of beats and bass; the song’s jazz bred discord and post punk dance bouncing around like a Delta 5 meets Blood Red Shoes tango before Styling shares its own riveting devilment with a similar but quickly individual template of flavours. To be honest the rhythmic heart of the first trio had us trapped hook, line and sinker, all the other psyche infesting imagination icing on their inimitable cake with only the briefness of each song a frustration, a common niggle across the album.
It is a boldly striking start quickly matched by the more composed but no less sonically seared Soul Train. Emotion drenches every note and each syllable dropping from Dittberner’s throat with a crystalline melody a glassy temper within the growing tempest. Commandingly contagious and wonderfully irritable in many ways, it too lingers in ears and thoughts just as successors Shut Up and Kick Arse do. The first of the two is even more reined in which brings a tension and drama especially to its brewing crescendos which is raw seduction. Dittberner is a magnetic vocal presence potently backed by his companions, while together the quartet unite in imagination and dexterity with that earlier Bush reference at its enjoyable strongest. The second of the two has a Nick Cave like edge to its opening Doors-esque climate, hues which caress the brooding heart of song and sound before the track slips into an almost predatory stroll of primal rock ‘n’ roll at its inventive best with a rolling energy more than living up to its title.