Psychostick: IV, Revenge of the Vengeance

I don't know how familiar most readers are with Psychostick's blend of heavy metal and humor, but anyone who has heard the band find them hard to forget. This may not always be a good thing, but it certainly is a sign of this band's ability to create strange, funny, crazy, wild, and catchy, songs and package them in such a way that everything seems to make sense. Fortunately, this band is both funny and talented. I don't think it's for everyone, but it certainly made for a fun listen. It's also cool that this album is entirely crowdfunded. Some of the song ideas are also credited to donors.

The best thing about this band is the way they never take themselves or their music seriously. Instead of the unintentionally funny material that sometimes falls into our laps, Psychostick knows there's something funny about the bombast of certain kinds of metal and they play it up to good effect. Sometimes this exuberance for all things action, metal, and fun works really well. I really liked "Bruce Campbell," "Dogs Like Socks," and "H-Flat." "Obey the Beard" and "Danger Zone" were also lots of fun. I especially liked the way "Danger Zone" completely obliterated the original song. I always thought it was a goofy song. The guys in Psychostick obviously feel the same way. I also thought "Choking Hazard" was the coolest use of a sign as an inspiration for a song.

Sometimes the humor doesn't work quite as well. I didn't think "Dimensional Time Portal" was that good even though I admit to laughing from time to time. I also thought that "NSFW" took a funny idea and dragged it out for too long. No album like this can sustain the laughs perfectly. Still, these guys give it their all and it works pretty well.

Bottom line: this is a funny and entertaining album that should connect to a broad listenership. There's lots of explicit language on this album. Parents of teenage fans will hate this one.

Track Listing:
1. Revenge of the Vengeance
2. Obey the Beard
3. President Rhino
4. H-Flat
5. So. Heavy.
6. Dogs Like Socks
7. Super Legit Official Teaser #2 Explode
8. Quack Kills
9. Blue Screen
10. NSFW
11. Danger Zone
12. New to the Neighborhood
13. Loathe thy Neighbor
14. Awesome!
15. Choking Hazard
16. Fight to the Death
17. Bruce Campbell
18. Trick or Treat
19. Dimensional Time Portal
20. The Power of Metal Compels You
21. Outtakes IV: The Outtakening

Added: November 19th 2014
Reviewer: Carl Sederholm
Score:
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2460
Language: english

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