Psycho Choke
Unravelling Chaos

August 2010
Released: 2010, 7 Hard
Rating: 2.5/5
Reviewer: Waspman

Psycho Choke...interesting name. Anyway, Psycho Choke hails from the metal island of Greece, forming back in 1999 during the formative years of that much-maligned genre known as metalcore. The band put out their debut in one of metalcore’s golden years, 2002, but then fell silent until an EP release in 2007. Silenced followed again, until this year with the release of UNRAVELLING CHAOS.

For better or worse, Psycho Choke has stayed true to their metalcore roots. There’s nothing on UNRAVELLING CHAOS that you haven’t heard before on a thousand other metalcore albums, but that’s not too say that Psycho Choke are worthless. They certainly bring a level of intensity and power that is rarely heard in metalcore anymore, especially in the guitars. The vocals are your standard clean/growled vocal roar – very dull. Still, as songs like “Death by Words” and “Obey” attest, Psycho Choke can rival the best metalcore still around.

Unfortunately, Psycho Choke’s roots in late ‘90s music are betrayed in a very negative way too – namely, mallcore. Yes, I’m sad to report that there are a bunch of “jumpdafuckup” moments peppered throughout the album and they do nothing but drag it down, making songs like “Dummy” a complete waste of time.

Unfortunately, Psycho Choke are a band lost in time. They’ve arguably perfected the metalcore style of yesteryear, and yet offer nothing of interest for 2010.