More than two decades deep into their existence, Psycroptic have announced their eighth studio album, Divine Council, set to be released via Prosthetic Records on August 5. Alongside the album announcement, the Australian extreme metal group have shared the lead single, "Rend Asunder", and an accompanying music video for the track - directed by Michael Rankine and filmed at Oi Studios in Tasmania, AU - which can be seen below.
Speaking on the album announcement and "Rend Asunder", the band comments: "'Rend Asunder' is a little bit of a different style of track for us - stripped back and streamlined, but it still has the Psycroptic sound. It's straight to the point - fast, catchy and hard hitting from the outset. We think people will dig it from the first listen. We can't wait to play it live, it will definitely be in the set for our upcoming tours."
Brothers Dave Haley (drums) and Joe Haley (guitar) have steered Psycroptic through different shades of death metal, from the technical to the experimental, with longtime vocalist and lyricist Jason Peppiatt and bassist Todd Stern further embellishing the sound of the band to create something that is distinctively Psycroptic.
Origin vocalist Jason Keyser has long been considered a part of Psycroptic's extended family, and on Divine Council, he contributes vocals to the album tracks. As Peppiatt wrote the lyrics and vocal patterns, the group were able to utilize an extended palette of styles to further enhance his sound, courtesy of Keyser and additional vocals from Amy Wiles, hitting upon a collective approach to complement the Haleys.
With writing and recording punctuated by a pandemic and subsequent strict lockdowns, Divine Council was recorded in various locations across Australia and North America. Drums were tracked at Anubis Studios by Chris Thelemco, bass was captured by Justin Spaeth at Cave Bound Studio, and guitars, vocals and synths were recorded by the band's own Joe Haley at his Crawlspace Studios before he mixed and mastered the album's nine tracks.
The suffocating atmosphere carries through to the lyrics that detail the myriad of ways that human beings waste, destroy or devalue what's in front of them - captured in the evocative album artwork, courtesy of the prolific Eliran Kantor. With narrative threads that throw back to tracks on both their self-titled album and As The Kingdom Drowns, Psycroptic have found yet more new ways to explore human's inherent inability to see the bigger picture - or change track before a miserable demise becomes a crushing inevitability.
Divine Council is an album that oozes confidence, maturity and a relaxed self-assurance befitting of a band with a rich legacy behind them and an unconstrained future ahead of them.
Divine Council tracklisting:
"Rend Asunder"
"A Fool's Errand"
"This Shadowed World"
"Enslavement"
"Ashes Of Our Empire"
"The Prophet's Council"
"Awakening"
"A Fragile Existence"
"Exitus"
Psycroptic will be performing live on June 25 at Crowbar in Sydney, Australia with Denouncement Pyre, Werewolves, and Golgothan Remains.
(Photographer credit: Michael Rankine)
