ALBUM REVIEW: PSYCHOSTICK - DO
Fifteen years into their career, self proclaimed “kings of comedy rock” are back with their fifth full length album which was surprise released on twitch at the end of July. For long term fans of the band, ‘DO’ is more of the same and sure to entertain. For those who have never come across ‘Psychostick’ before however, prepare for an unforgivingly long record of needlessly dull and drawn out songs that are totally devoid of humour and/or intelligence. Simply put, ‘Psychostick’ are the musical equivalent of the ‘Scary Movie’ franchise providing little more than immature humour and third rate copies of jokes that have already been made. Opening song ‘We are a Band’ starts with promise, mocking the over the top nature of metal bands who reach comical excess in their album intros, however the joke quickly wears thin. What follows is a staggering 22 songs over an hour long which would be an endurance test even if the jokes were good. When you factor in that this includes an eight minute ‘out takes’ track and a song about the day ‘Tuesday’ and this album will make you want to tear your ears out before your reach the halfway point. Other low points include a poor mans version of Monty Pythons ‘Penis Song’ in ‘Thinking With Yer Dick’ and ‘Flop’ which comes dangerously close to plagiarism when compared with youtube sensation Tomska’s song of the same name. What makes ‘DO’ so upsetting though is the fact that the music is actually quite good. Drawing influence from ‘Pantera’ and a multitude of early noughts nu-metal bands, ‘Psychostick’ offer up a collection of tasty riffs. ‘Rent In Peace’, ‘Socks And Sandals’ and ‘You Can (Maybe) Do It’ are all relatively pleasing on the ear instrumentally until the vocals come in with one of the most punchable voices in music. It is truly remarkable that ‘Psychostick’ have managed to last this long, but we desperately hope that this is the last that we hear from them for a long time.
1/10
Personal highlight: We would be lying if we didn’t admit that the opening line of ‘Introvert Party Time’ didn’t make us smile. However the joke quickly runs stale and we can’t help but feel that the punchline would have been much more effective if the song was shorter.
