Backslider (USA) - Psychic Rot (2022)

The color films of Italian horror pioneer Mario Bava are vivid to the point of unreality. A rainbow of lighting gels coming from unnatural locations, bright red dressmaker's mannequins and brighter blood, fog-drenched soundstage forests and cobweb-laden crypts. Psychic Rot, the latest from Philadelphia's Backslider, is the Mario Bava movie of powerviolence albums. Unnerving, psychedelic, filled with detail and shot through with sudden violence.

A range of styles comprise the sound here. 

Tracks like "Corpseflower" and first single "Psuedomessiah" brim with blasting powerviolence, while leaving room for some midtempo bits and some moody spoken word. Opener "Asymmetric Torment" and closer "The Floating Door" deal in burly, groovy metal of a sort that's been present on past releases, but more distinct and fully-formed. Pieces of punk, metal, noise and other stylistic flourishes are fitted into each other across the record in a way that doesn't feel forced or busy.

Acting as organizing principle to those disparate pieces is that this is a great sounding record. The heavy sections are warm and full, speedy sections are sharp and clear, and nuances of effects and electronics don't get lost in the feedback and distortion. Backslider have always had a hybridized style, and that's accentuated to great effect here. Psychic Rot amplifies and highlights its component parts in a way that makes each one pop.

The material here has roots in similar places to a lot of other extreme music acts, but the approach is uniquely Backslider. Like Bava's striking visuals, this is a vivid, stylized work that stands out from its peers. It's the kind of album that sets a band onto a new phase in their career, and it feels primed to launch them into prominence in the extreme metal scene.

Psychic Rot is available digitally via To Live a Lie Records' Bandcamp or on vinyl via To Live a Lie Records' webstore.