Psycroptic: The Inherited Repression – new album

Tasmanian devils' (as they are known in some predictable circles) new album will be released on February 7th, 2012 in North America and on February 10th, 2012 in Europe, but by all means do listen to PSYCROPTIC fifth studio album, ‘The Inherited Repression’,  before its release in its full technical death metal glory here, at Guitar World. (The stream has since ended.) The album was produced, engineered and mixed by one of the band's founders guitarist Joe Haley, while Alan Douches handled mastering duties. Pre-order the album here (Nuclear Blast USA) and here (Nuclear Blast Europe), on iTunes and Amazon.

“ ‘The Inherited Repression’ is far and away my favorite PSYCROPTIC album thus far - all of us in the band think this. It’s the age-old cliché from bands when they talk about their current album as being the best of their career, blah, blah, but I have to say it because it’s true. We wouldn’t think there is a point of going on if we couldn’t outdo each album prior. We are certainly not playing music for anything else than the love of creating it and performing it. ‘The Inherited Repression’ is quite different from anything we have done in terms of song writing and structure, and we spent a lot longer writing and demoing the songs before we recorded it, which you can tell. It’s a very dynamic album - the fast elements faster, the slow elements slower, and a lot of light and dark binding it together. It’s a very catchy album as well - you can tap your foot, bang your head or anything else you want. Basically it has a lot of groove on it from start to finish,” [commented guitarist Joe Haley]:

PSYCROPTIC: Carriers Of The Plague – courtesy of Nuclear Blast Records

PSYCROPTIC was formed in 1999 by brothers Dave and Joe Haley in Hobart, Australia. With vocalist Matthew Chalk and bassist Cameron Grant, the brothers self-released PSYCROPTIC debut full-length, ‘The Isle Of Disenchantment’, in 2001, which was followed by ‘The Scepter Of The Ancients’ in 2003 (Unique Leader Records). In 2004, with their star on the rise, the group embarked on their first Australian tour as well as European tour with their Swedish brothers in arms DISMEMBER and ANATA. PSYCROPTIC lost vocalist Matthew Chalk upon their return to Tasmania, whom they replaced with Jason Peppiatt before issuing their third studio album, ‘Symbols Of Failure’, in 2006 (Neurotic Records/Willowtip Records/Stomp). With it PSYCROPTIC impressed Nuclear Blast Records, who offered the band an international recording contract. Logan Mader-mixed and mastered fourth full-length ‘Ob(Servant)’ was released in 2008:

“PSYCROPTIC usually go for the jugular, and they take great pleasure in kicking, stomping, and pummeling the listener into submission. … But never let it be said that bands like PSYCROPTIC lack chops or can’t play their instruments. Musicianship, in fact, is a crucial part of the equation on ‘Ob(Servant)’. These Aussies favor a complex blend of technical death metal and technical metalcore; technical is definitely the operative word where PSYCROPTIC are concerned, and the fact is that you need good chops to play music that is so unapologetically technical,” [was unapologetically perceptive Alex Henderson, Allmusic – more here]

PSYCROPTIC features: Jason Peppiatt – vocals, Joe Haley – guitar, Cameron Grant – bass and Dave Haley – drums