Psychic Secretions

For those who've followed the fortunes of Australia's StarGazer has witnessed a career arc beginning from its first steps as an extreme metal band in the 90s to a confidence and range of expression that only masters of their art can achieve -- given the . A Merging to the Boundless was excellent, and Psychic Secretions a worthy successor in its layered complexity.

One of the nice things about a StarGazer album is that you can never be sure of what you're going to get. Lash of the Tytans, after a smooth intro reminding me of early-90s progressive death metal, switches to high-speed bursts of riffing, tightly nailed together into a package with Denny Blake's leads. Evil Olde Sol, on the other hand, changes time signatures almost to the point of arrhythmia, with the bass leaping around the main tune like a killer whale surfing Arctic waves. Though the tracks explode into chaos in seconds, one is just as likely to find still, ringing passages of guitar echoing into a void.

The progressive arrangement of Psychic Secretions's tracks is tempered by their melodies, which are good throughout -- as long as one accepts that they're going to change at a moment's notice. This album eschews most of the blackened tremolo picking of A Merging to the Boundless in favor of furious riffing with a spare, clean attack; we get a lot of that riffing, and compared to the instrumental work, the vocals seem almost an afterthought sometimes, blending into the bass and guitar notes. Yet it too has a crucial part, providing a sense of lurking mystery and evil; on the last track, the vocals are clean, with operatic tragedy, for a few minutes of despairing grandeur, with a dull chanted choir ending the track over the slow crunch of the final riff. While it would be easy for a band like this to rest on its laurels, this album shows that they've still got plenty of new ideas.

Bandcamp: https://stargazeraustralia.bandcamp.com/album/psychic-secretions.