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Psychothermia: Fall to the Rising Sun

Modern Hard Rock/Heavy Metal

3.0/5.0

Website Facebook Twitter YouTube
Independent / Self-released
by Craig Hartranft,  03.19.2013

Psychothermia was born out of the ashes of another southern California band, namely, Canobliss. To say that their full length debut, Fall to the Rising Sun, picks up where the former band ended could be debated endlessly. After several spins of the album, I'm not sure were Psychothermia is going with their sound.

Perhaps that's why I straddle the fence between idle interest and simple ambivalence. The music here is mixture of melodic hard rock and heavy metal, both from classic and modern camps. You might hear straight guitar melodic metal, bits of thrash, some nu-metal, and d-tuned hard rock.The arrangements are so varied across the disc to swing between eclectic and muddled.

On the upside, the band keeps you curious as to what comes next or you merely pass of this mixture as an exercise in creativity. On the downside, in my case, after the fourth song Anarchy, the album seemed directionless. But I wanted to keep listening, even though I wasn't satisfied with what I was hearing. Quite a bizarre feeling indeed. Also, across the album, it seemed that there was an ongoing imbalance between instruments, that even within a song one was fighting to rise for equal time. Additionally, as much as I think he's a talented vocalist, even John Maldonado didn't seem know what voice, style or range he was bringing to the songs. Ultimately, Psychothermia is a talented band and Fall to the Rising Sun is step in right direction, but more focus may be required to regain my attention in the future. Check them out for yourself.

Note: All Amazon advertising in this review first benefits the artist, then Craig Hartranft also receives a residual. Click, and thanks for your support.

Psychothermia's debut Fall to the Rising Sun is a mixed bag of modern melodic hard rock and heavy metal which, at the very least, will keep you guessing. But will it be entertaining enough to keep your attention.

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The Powell Payne project, created in 2022 is the collaboration of Mark "Penfold Powell (ex-drummer of Psycho Kiss) and Adam Payne (former vocalist of Airrace). With guitarist Adam Davies and keyboard player ... [ Read More ]