PSYCHOMANCER "Shards of the Hourglass"

PSYCHOMANCER

“Shards of the Hourglass”

You no longer have to travel to Stockholm to have your skull crushed by prime Swedish death metal. Now you can visit Indiana and have PSYCHOMANCER do it right here in the States.

This band has mastered the bone-shattering power of the “Stockholm Sound” and vomited up 10 tracks of chainsaw brutality right out of the wheelhouse of DISMEMBER or VOMITORY.  Maybe they managed to get Tomas Skogsberg out of retirement and shipped him to Terre Haute, I don’t know. But it’s obvious from the first notes of “The Unsullied” that these Hoosiers live up pretty well to their inspirations. What I find unusual about PSYCHOMANCER is that they are not afraid to do longer songs...”Red Poetry” and “Faded Scars Return To Bleed” are rather lengthy and the title track approaches 10 minutes in size. I think there are a couple of spots in these songs where their reach might have exceeded their grasp, but they then redeem themselves with a burst of raw brutality, which is where they do their best.

You also get treated to the angry bull roars of Duston Bullard here, who fits death metal monsters like “Hell’s Venom” and “Myrmidons” to a T. There are even hints of DISMEMBER-like melody on occasion. If you crave classic Swedish DM brutality, this one’s a real no brainer.

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PSYCHOMANCER