Psychostasia

In my humble opinion, one of the best death metal albums that have ever been released in Finland, and going further, on a global scale, one of those albums that could easily hit the podium of the most dehumanized and stuffy positions in the trend of death metal. Before "Psychostasia" was released, Jarkko Rantanen's group was gaining momentum quite slowly. Firstly, by two, very underground sounding demos, and then through two eps, i.e. "Spring Of Recovery" and "The Fall", gaining the appropriate clarity and shaping their unique style. Fortunately, the expectations until 1996 paid off, because - as I have already mentioned - the effects turned out to be phenomenal, and the quartet also received quite good support from Repulse Records.

They say you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but to be honest, it's not possible here! The graphic design by Turkka Rantanen perfectly reflects the entirety of the music - it's strange, mysterious and really insane. And it's no different in practice. Adramelech's debut is dominated by very dingy riffs, mid-tempo rhythms with occasional blasts (Jarkko is also responsible for these parts), "whispered" growl, surprisingly sophisticated solos and an extremely stuffy atmosphere mixed with a slightly melancholic melodies. For this reason, on "Psychostasia" there is no question of weaker or less distinctive songs. This is a complete album from A to Z, where identifying the best moments can be very problematic. Because I can mention "Mythic Descendant", "Heroes In Godly Blaze", "Across The Gray Waters" or "The Book Of The Worm", but I don't know if it makes more sense. The deadly atmosphere breathes from all the songs equally, and absolutely each of them maintains an ultra-high level. Anyway, even the production side is attractive - with considerable selectivity, but without killing the naturalness.

Together with "Nespithe", "Psychostasia" is therefore one of the best Finnish death metal albums and a perfect template of this type of stuffy music. The bigger is my (but probably not only) misunderstanding that such material was lost in underground. Because there was definitely something to conquer the biggest stages with.

Originally on: https://subiektywnymetal.blogspot.com/2022/05/adramelech-psychostasia-1996.html

Some albums don’t click with me. "Psychostasia" is one of those albums. I should love it. There are great things here; atmosphere, song-writing, musicianship. I first discovered this record back in the late nineties when I was trying (and failing) to find a copy of "Slumber of Sullen Eyes", which was long out-of-print. I bought "Psychostasia" on a whim because it was easier to find. I thought it might scratch a similar itch. It never did. This album also seems to have sneaked into the Finnish death metal canon in recent years. I love Finnish death metal.

This album came out in 1996. It was an awkward time for death metal in general, with some great albums (i.e., "None So Vile", "Here in After"). The original Finnish death metal scene was over. All the other original bands had either broken up (like Demigod, Abhorrence or Demilich) or were no longer playing in a death metal style (like Sentenced or Disgrace). Adramelech might have been the only band left playing the old style. They had recruited the drummer from Demigod (Seppo Taatila) to play guitar. Presumably the talented Taatila was looking to keep the Finnish death metal torch alive by whatever means possible. “Psychostasia” might be the last remnant of the original Finnish death metal sound; deep, dark, sinister and murky.

I can praise this record in many respects. The composition is great. The riffs flow from one to the next and there are plenty of grooves. I see similarities to Immolation, Demigod and Demilich, although Adramelech had their own way of doing things. Most of the songs are great too. Take "Heroes in Godly Blaze" for example, every riff connects to a grander vision. This was the sound of a band that was assimilating the lessons of older death metal and updating it for the mid-nineties. Adramelech also deserves credit for refusing the trends of the time. This album makes no concession to black metal, nor to the Gothenburg melodic death metal sound.

The downside is the production. It sounds OK on the surface. It is heavy. The bass is deep. The drums sound natural. This album was produced by the guy who had done the first Demigod and Sentenced albums, so it retains the old ‘Finndeath’ atmosphere. The problem is with the guitar tone, which sounds like mush. Listen to the opening minute of the title track. There are a bunch of great riffs and some excellent playing, but the guitar tone sloshes around in the background with no 'attack'. It is compounded by the vocals being too low in the mix. Listen to the band's crushing EP from the previous year ("The Fall") and compare the versions of the three songs on there. That EP had a harsh, violent sound that “Psychostasia” cannot match.

A gnarlier production was all this album needed. This is particularly galling given that "The Fall" had been recorded by the same people in the same studio, one year earlier. Ultimately, “Psychostasia” is an album that I never want to hear. I cannot think of a single reason why anyone would choose to listen to it over earlier Finnish death metal classics like "Shadows of the Past", "Slumber of Sullen Eyes" or "Nespithe". Those records were not easily available when Adramelech recorded this, but anyone can find them at the touch of a button nowadays. “The Fall” is easy to find too, listen to that and lament about how much better “Psychostasia” could have been.

By the mid-1990s death metal’s day in the sun was all but over. The popular notion of what death metal sounded like was reduced to melo-death or…Fear Factory…? Rather than look at this as the death of another extreme genre, I would l say it allowed the underground time and space to rediscover what made this music so exciting in the first place. There were still plenty of quality releases coming out at this time from older acts, and still new acts arriving. But the frantic energy of the late 80s was gone, as was the irresistible need to chase sales pressured by bigger labels. Out of these paradoxical times came albums like ‘Psychostasia’ from Finland’s Adramelech, released in 1996. Recorded at Tico-Tico studios in Finland, the same studio that Demigod set down their legendary ‘Slumber of Sullen Eyes’ (1992), the similarities with this Finnish legend are immediately apparent. The meaty, brooding guitars, the power and clarity to the snare sound. The whole thing is layered with menace. Vocals operate at the very low end of guttural growling. They are maybe a little too low in the mix, operating more as a presence than a lead instrument in their own right. Nevertheless, they bolster up this music’s intimidating qualities.

And whilst there are many similarities to the Demigod’s approach to mid-paced death metal, building the riffs up with tremolo picked riffs underpinned by slower drums with pounding double bass maintained, Adaramelech walk a different path. Firstly, their approach to riff construction is heavily informed by the drums, which interact with the phrasing of the guitars far more than mid-paced death metal. They serve to chop the riffs up and disorientate the listener before grounding them once again with a simple 4/4 rhythm. The riffs themselves trade on very clever use of the tritone combined with atonality in a way not unlike ‘Nespithe’. Indeed, the whole album reeks of the same alienating, truly otherworldly death metal that operates on its own plain of reality. Although both guitar parts generally follow the same patterns with the occasional lead jumping out, they make good use of dynamics through simple as fuck tricks like dropping one guitar track out for a few bars, before jumping back in at unexpected intervals. When set to these off-kilter chord patterns, such a basic idea is given maximum impact, as one idea compounds on another.

Adramelech exemplify how rhythmic diversity can augment the riffs within death metal. For example, after working with a fast paced yet standard blast-beat they will then drop out to a more bouncy rhythm, with the climax of each iteration given extra emphasis by the drums. Sporadic and unexpected blasts will continue to jump out which further adds to the alienating quality to these oddly droning, yet frantic chord sequences as they progress. The mid-section of the track is usually where the tempo drops down to a walking pace. At times they even work in swing qualities to the beat, almost mocking in their mutation of the familiar now monstrous. And through no components beyond guitars and drums a unique and dark atmosphere supervenes on this well constructed musical base; a subtle, droning darkness carried throughout the album; identifiable more by the absence of something than the presence of anything as pedestrian as keyboards.

‘Psychostasia’ is an example of one of adolescence’s defining features, that of consolidating the confusing myriad of ideas and emotions that make up childhood into a complete person with a world view, ideas, and unique outlook. It’s a sign of death metal’s maturation into a style of music no longer focused on being the ‘most’ of anything (fastest, loudest, evilest, technicalist), and rather becoming a unique form of metal with its own language, its own sui-generis ability to communicate ideas through art. Deep in the underground, away from the chaos of metal in the mid-1990s, death metal was solidifying its purpose as a unique form of music which could aspire to artistic potentials that other forms of music simply could not reach.

Originally published at Hate Meditations

Ah, Finland! A land of great woodlands and snow-covered mountains with happy little reindeer running about! At one point in time during the 1990’s, this country put out some Death Metal bands that have aged like a fine wine over time. Finnish Death Metal bands like Demilich, Demigod, Depravity and Convulse have seen a resurgence in popularity in the contemporary Metal community. Now even people at the American Nihilist Underground Society (ANUS) hail their transcendence from Death Metal to something more technical and furthermore a purer form of the genre.

Adramelech is the band that gained the inhuman drumming skills behind Demigod’s milestone album “Slumber of Sullen Eyes”, Seppo Tattila, who picked up the guitar for Adramelech during “Psychostasia” in 1996 with drums and vocals provided by Jarkko Rantanen, who would later split off from Adramelech to play live drums and vocals for Demigod in 1998. If you are completely confused by what I just said, fret not, that’s only normal.

Adramelech does not sound so much like Demigod but they are very familiar to Demilich but if the vocals were still somewhat human and there was a lot more melody. There is still a lot of technical slamming going on that really encompasses the richness of the Finnish Death Metal sound during the 90’s. “Psychostasia” is a forgotten about album that is long-overdue for the spotlight.

This reissue from Xtreem Music included 3 bonus tracks of Adramelech performing “Heroes in Godly Blaze” live as well as “Seven” and “The Sleep of Ishtar”, which both appeared on their 1998 EP “Seven”.

There’s really nothing to criticize about this album, being as this album is more of a polished up artifact than something new being offered. It is certainly a lot easier to comprehend than “Nespithe” because “Psychostasia” is nowhere near how bizarre that record was. But I would say this album is more of a treat for Demigod fans than Demilich fans but really this reissue is a true gift unto all Death Metal fans.

(originally published on Metal-Temple.com, 3-17-2014)

I've quite often seen this band compared to fellow countrymen Demilich, which I could never decide if I fully agreed with. I won't deny there are some similarities but I've always felt Adramelech offered something quite different from their counterparts, and in fact the majority of their regional scene. Sure, I'm not contesting the brilliance of Demigod etc, but next to Sentenced these were probably my favorite old school death metal act from Finland.

I often find it hard to place a finger on just what it is about Psychostasia that makes me love it so much. I don't normally have a lot of time for death metal, however when the time arises this is exactly the kind of shit I want to hear. The fucking riffs on this album are ingenious, perfectly technical yet always remaining damn heavy, skull splitting in fact. The vocals are awesome, with quite a muddy, suffocating mix giving them an distant, almost ethereal feel. Far from the average cookie monster growls, the vocals here had more in common with the European guard.

As I stated, the production has quite a suffocating feel, yet the clarity is surprisingly good. The drums have an earthy, natural feel to them, the guitar tone is as menacing as they come and the bass just fucking rumbles around, shaking your bowels. This all adds to the dust clogged atmosphere, helped by the awesome album artwork. I wouldn't be surprised if I went out for a spot of grave robbing, only to pry open a tomb and have this album blast out in a cloud of virulent, age old debris.

Blending absolutely classic old school death metal stylings such as "The Book of the Worm" with furious bouts of technical mastery as seen in the title track, Psychostasia is just under 35 minutes of sheer bad-assery. Whilst quite hard to track down on hard copy, this is an album I'd recommend doing anything in your power to hear. Somewhat of a lost gem amongst the mighty old school Finnish death metal scene, I can happily recommend this to any serious fan of old school death metal. This is death metal how it should be and would certainly make my top 10-20 list in the genre. BFA (bad-fucking-ass)

If there is one bad thing about underground music scenes, it's that it's possible for absolute gems to fall through the cracks. The early to mid-90's death metal scene sadly was one which misplaced a lot of great music, and Adramelech's stunning debut could be the biggest loss of the lot. Psychostasia is dripping with originality, passion and vision. Every minute of this album is filled with an unmatched style of strange yet uncompromising riffing and a unique and instantly memorable sense of obscure melody. It fuses the awkward, alien riffing style of Demilich's legendary debut Nespithe with a healthy dose of vitriolic and vicious traditional Finish death metal. The resulting combination delivers the best of both worlds, making Psychostasia an album suited for any death metal fan.

One of the keys to Psychostasia being so interesting is that it has two distinct styles. One which is the odd Demilich inspired strangeness, quite a bit more aggressive in fashion, but missing none of complex fretwork and song structuring. This is mixed in with a lot of straight up death metal riffing and Dismember-like use of melody, which gives the album a sense of power and violence that shames their fellow countrymen. Adramelech simply never give you too much of one thing, there's elements of technical death metal, old school Finnish brutality and doomy heaviness, all displayed with an airy, almost black metal atmosphere. There are so many ideas on offer that it never gets stale.

This atmosphere is driven by the roomy production with no instrument dominating the sound, and the by the unconventional throaty grunts of the Jarkko Rantanen. Every instrument is audible and clear, leaving enough space to show off the various technical elements that make up about half this album, but without turning it into an in-band dick waving contest. The vocals are quiet and the bass is loud, but this seems like less of a mixing mistake and more of a conscious decision. The loud bass helps drive the grooves through what could otherwise break down into a mess of angular rhythms, and the strangely distant vocals add to the alien quality of the music. This is much like how Antti Boman's burps aid Demilich's atypical sound, but these have the same effect whilst not seeming quite so 'silly', and pack quite a bit more punch.

Musically, Psychostasia is a reasonably technical affair, about a 3rd of it is straight forward old school DM and traditional melodies, so it avoids the technical death metal tag, but the album is quite a challenge to digest fully. It has layers and layers of complex rhythm work to go along with the speedy fretwork to keep an inquisitive minded listener interested for years, and enough stomping riffs to keep your casual headbanger more than entertained. Tempos rise and fall frequently but they do so smoothly, without ever resorting to moronic stop-start “song writing”. This is where the majority of the low end technicality lies, the drumming is not packed with crazy fills, but Rantanen's use of various beats ranging from simplistic old school pounding rhythms, to polyrhythmic double bass patterns, to off-time beats, to blasts and his transitions from one to another are just as impressive as the most complex of fill players.

That isn't to say that the leads and riffs aren't absolutely top notch, because they are, but it's the compositional skills which bring it all together which makes this album so good. There simply isn't anything this strange that flows this well. With that said, the leads are all exceptional, usually melodic, but filled with the trademarked off centre melodic patterns, and full of technical flair, again giving the album yet another level that it can be appreciated on.

Adramelech's debut is an absolute gem that was somehow lost among the masses of quality output from Finland during the early/mid 90’s, and one that will hopefully be able to thrive with the internet. It's got all of the quirky charm of other obscure albums which have been dug up over the last few years, but it's still fast, catchy and aggressive at the same time.

Here, we have a band, consisting of members from the Finnish death metal band, Demigod. On this album, Adramelech's full-length debut, we hear very similar qualities to the fore-mentioned Demigod. A very interesting album, mixing the black and death metal genres quite harmoniously, and subtely adding harmonics to the thick wall of riffs this album contains.

"PsychoStasia" is a very dynamic, and interesting album, that may cause the listener to actually *listen* to the album, and appreciate all the complex structures, and melodies that are quite evident here, instead of just banging your head against the wall and getting a well deserved concussion.

The music on this album, is ever changing. While staying true to the death metal genre, Adramelech intertwines slow, almost melodic riffing passages, that make "PsychoStasia" more obscure than your everyday "oldschool" death metal release. Believe me when I say, however, that this style works quite well, and still retains the feeling of a death metal album.

The bass is LOUD as fuck, and at times, seems to overpower the other instruments. Don't fret, for this allows for a flowing rhythm, that remains heavy 'till the last beat. One of the guitars will follow along with the drum beat, which is something you don't hear much of anymore. Another guitar will act as the leader, offering up the main riffs to the songs, sometimes going off into a whole new dimension. A very bizarre style to say the least.

Vocally, the album is solid. Jarkko Rantanen barks songs about religion, and mythologies, maintaining an agressiveness not always heard within the genre. Though, at times, it seems as if he is standing five feet from the microphone. Some might see this as weak production, but I see it as just another positive influence on the doomy atmosphere surrounding "PsychoStasia". The overall production is that which you would expect of a blackened-death metal band, and Adramalech captures it perfectly.

For any fans of the death, or black metal genres, try this album out. It's heavy, it's fucked up, it's original, and yet it should contain at least something that anyone could like.