Psychrist - The Abysmal Fiend (1994)^{Release ID: 56330}

During the formative years of my own death metal band Neuropath, there were a number of Aussie artists that played important roles in inspiring us to take things to a much higher level than we may otherwise have done & Canberra death metallers Psychrist were one of the more important. I had the pleasure of seeing them play live on a number of occasions & always loved their sound while their debut E.P. "The Abysmal Fiend" played a starring role around our rehearsal room & social gatherings for an extended period. I'd quite enjoyed Psychrist's 1992 demo tape but the E.P. was more emphatic in its statement & it was fantastic to hear a local group creating something that rivalled the Americans for class & intensity. It's really surprised me to discover that Psychrist haven't even been added to our database yet as they simply seem like such a significant player in Australian extreme metal & perhaps that just emphasizes how isolated we were in a pre-internet time. Regardless, I hope you take something from this review as Psychrist deserve to be heard & not just because of my nostalgia for a simpler time.

"The Abysmal Fiend" is a 26-minute, six-song affair that sports a more than acceptable Powerhouse Studio production job from a completely unheard of producer named Craig Beck who hasn't gone on to do anything else of note as far as I'm aware. It sounds thick & chunky yet maintains enough rawness to offer an obvious appeal for the more underground side of the scene with the guitar tone coming across as fairly sloppy in isolation yet becoming strangely cohesive when positioned within the full band aesthetic. The execution is highly professional for a first-up effort with Psychrist sounding like they'd been doing it their whole lives at this point. I recently reviewed a couple of the early releases from Brisbane death metallers Misery who were also a huge influence on Neuropath & this doesn't sound all that dissimilar to them or Gorguts' 1991 debut album "Considered Dead" although it's a lot faster & more brutal at times, particularly due to the addition of some fast & precise blast beats from drummer James Simper. In fact, there are a couple of tracks that spill all the way over into the brutal death metal space (see "The Shroud of Profanity" & "Copraphile") which no doubt left me with feeling a wide array of jollies back in the day given my fascination with the early brutal death metal scene. Psychrist display a really good sense of dynamics here though as there's a lot of variety in their decisions around tempo & this is a real strength. I particularly enjoy the vocals of guitarist & band leader Yuri Ward (Armoured Angel/Lord Kaos) who I enjoyed a few chats with over a beer or two back in the day while the use of harmonies & layering in the guitar work is professionally executed with bassist Dan Marsden (Astriaal) holding bottom end down nicely.

The tracklisting is completely without blemish & is very solid indeed. Interestingly, the obvious weak point is the shortest & most consistently brutal track in "Copraphile" which simply offers less in the way of depth & nuance than the rest of the material. I still enjoy it but I prefer it when Psychrist reach a little further than that. The other five songs are all really strong without any of them ever really cracking into the top tier of the death metal spectrum. "Tears of the Deceased" is the only inclusion to have been revamped from the demo tape & it doesn't sound out of place here either. The best offerings are probably opener "Inhumation" & the excellent "Spiral" (my personal favourite) which appeared on the Warhead Records compilation "Warhead Records Volume 1‎" the following year. I can hear a few riffs across the album that remind me very much of some of Neuropath's early tracks (particularly in the drumming) so the influence that these guys had on me is pretty obvious to be honest. Our second demo "Desert of Excruciation" would end up being released on the same Warhead Records label as "The Abysmal Fiend" too which isn't a coincidence given the impact that it & the other early Warhead releases had on me & my band mates when we were frantically exploring the merits of the Aussie live scene.

Psychrist would become a pretty stable part of my musical diet off the back of this release & would also represent something that I aspired to match at some point. I've been very pleased to discover that that level of idolatry wasn't without merit during this revisit either because "The Abysmal Fiend" is an excellent death metal release in its own right & is possibly the best thing that the band accomplished during their decade-long recording career so it's deservedly earnt its place in the annuls of Australian death metal history in my opinion.

For fans of Backyard Mortuary, Abramelin & Misery.