Am.Psych – Cold Wars (CD Album – WTII Records)
Genre/Influences: Crossover, industrial, electro-pop.
Background/Info: Am.Psych is an American formation, which debuted by the “Side Effects“ (2010)-EP. The band went through line-up changes and the debut full length took them 7 years to achieve.
Content: “Cold Wars” is a varied work, taking off with a great and heavy cut reminding me of KMFDM. The guitar playing is quite present in the beginning part of the album. Quite progressively Am.Psych explores other paths, leading them towards power-pop fields carried by dynamic rhythms. The album gets harder again although holding on to some pop influences characterized by elevating chorus passages. Some guitar parts are even touching ground with rock & metal influences.
+ + + : The guitar playing definitely is one of the main characteristics of this album. It sometimes sounds a bit like the songs have been all composed by guitar and next achieved by drum sections, electronics and of course vocals. And I have to say Am.Psych has a real talented singer who feels comfortable with different music genres. The rhythms are quite important as well; often dynamic and sometimes pretty shamanic.
– – – : It’s not always that easy to enjoy the diversity of the songs. It gives a bit the impression of a band exorcising multiple ideas while it’s often easier for listeners to get more cohesion between the tracks.
Conclusion: Am.Psych is literally buying a sonic bridge between very different influences. It creates a bit of a duality between some of the tracks, resulting in tracks driven by hard guitar playing and other cuts that are more into electronics.
Best songs: “Luminiscent”, “My Enemy”, “Novya Zemlya”, “Miss Fallout”.
Rate: (6½).
Artist: www.facebook.com/pg/am.psych
Label: www.wtiirecords.com / www.facebook.com/WTIIRecords
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I have been working for over 30 years with Side-line as the main reviewer. My taste is eclectic, uncoventional and I prefer to look for the pearls, even if the bands are completely unknown, thus staying loyal to the Side-Line philosophy of nurturing new talents.
