I'll be the first to admit it, Gothic Metal isn't really my cup of tea. Nor is Gothic/Depressed Black Metal. However, I'll make an exception to my usual distaste for that sub genre here.
PsychoBliss is an act that hails from Phoenix, Arizona. The group is made up of the engaged couple of Dan Stollings and Kyla Paveleski. The band itself has been around for years now, but has only recently made the trek to become known within our fun little underground.
I met the two (Dan more Kyla) as I have every indy artist reviewed here, on Metal Archives. They'd been promoting their EP Dreams of Dystopia for quite some time, and so I finally sent them a message about me reviewing them. They agreed eagerly almost immediately, and since then, we've become comrades and to a degree friends. They even let me interview them for this place.
But enough about my history and the history of the band. Let's just dive into this sucker.
The quality of the album, is surprisingly/really good. All of the recording, mixing, producing, and what not was done in the two's house, in a walk in closet. One would think knowing that that the quality of sound would be utter shite, but it's not. It still obviously has that "Made at home" feel, but it doesn't really show (or hear, you know what I mean). It sounds like it was made professionally, and thus comes off as a very pro quality recording.
The individual sounds of the instruments themselves are pretty nice as well. Each one produces that Gothic feel that I mentioned earlier, and at times sounds like one of my favorite bands, Joy Division. It sets the atmosphere of darkness, coldness, and overall gloomyness.
The guitar work (which is the most audible instrument outside of the bass) is very simple in chords and playing (not saying you're a slow sucky player Dan). It has that sound of something that almost anybody who can play a guitar will easily produce at pure random. But it is effective here, as it adds to that G sound.
The riffs are consistent throughout the entire album, and helps provide the main structure of the album (almost as it was a narrator). I couldn't really think of any cons that stuck out besides my one little mention about the simplicity, but that was more or less a regular old observation. So yeah, guitars don't really have any beef with me.
The bass as I mentioned is the second most audible instrument. It's a tad weird hearing the bass so clearly in a Metal recording, as it's usually hidden like a damn Easter egg. Even though it's audible, there's not much to really say about it. It's there, and it's heard. But it doesn't really add a whole lot to the songs.
Now let's talk about le singing. Have you ever listened to spoken word Metal? Well that's kind of what the style is here. But that might be an insult, as Miss Paveleski does an amazing job here. While she does scream in one part of the recording, everything else is done very operatically, some which I enjoy greatly. You can hear shades of female singers such as Cristina Scabbia, Amy Lee, and the list could probably go on.
I don't know what it is, but this soft, spoken, and almost classical form of singing really fits and works here. It could be due to the Gothic sound of the entire album, which would be my main guess. But I don't know boys and girls, it's just fucking groovy.
Dan also does vocal duty as well. He mostly provides back up vocals, although he does prominently sing in one song. His style of singing is also very soft and spoken, but it has more of an edge to it. While Kyla comes off more as somebody you'd hear singing in Faust, Dan has more of a Metal sound to his singing.
Time to go on about the tracks. The track listing for the EP is as follows:
1. The Coldest Years
2. Don't Leave
3. Poisoned Fangs
4. Drifting Away
5. Finally Dead
Each track, while it has the same sound structure, is different from each other, and each one has a unique sound to it in same way. Each one is structured to be slow, rhythmic and brooding. Which is obviously the goal of the EP.
All of the songs deliver in that aspect. They bring you into a world of dark, fairy tell gothicness. Think of stories such as The Hunchback of Notre Dame, and pretty much anything by Lewis Carrol. It leaves you in that dark fantasy throughout the entire recording, and they do produce a feeling of being in a dream (uh...I wanted to do a version of Doug Walker's timing joke here, but I couldn't think of anything. So yeah...).
There are a few moments when the songs do have and bring you into a depressing state and form, but it's not to the same degree of other bands. The depressiveness here helps build up that dark dream like atmosphere I mentioned, instead of making you feel sad and in the mood to off yourself.
And while this is a Metal recording, the Metal sound never really shines through. Sure, you have a few riffs that will produce a Thrashy like sound, but it never really shines out. I know though that this is what the sound of most GBM is, and so I won't gripe about it like I have in the past.
As far as a favorite track goes, ehhhh. There isn't really a track on here that I'd probably listen to more then the other. I'd listen to the album again, but none of the songs (for me at least), really struck me as "Listen to again and again and again" like other songs have.
All in all, Dreams of Dystopia is a great EP. The quality of the sound here is top noch, and really helps the album as a whole. The instrumental portions of the EP are great as well. They set the mood, and prepare you for the vocals, which will bring you further into the fantasy world the songs try to set. The songs themselves while great, aren't nothing fantastic. Don't get me wrong, they're great and as I said previously, I'd listen to the EP again. But they don't have that something special going with them.
But this is just my opinion. Listen to the album yourself to find out for yourself and make your own opinion. It's currently streaming on SoundCloud, and is uploaded in it's entirety to Youtube. It's also due out soon on Amazon and iTunes from what I've heard.
Closing words, listen to it you bakas.
B -
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