Chuck Schuldiner Project

Thursday, March 17, 2011

Physio Prodigy

Physio Prodigy does industrial death metal, really well. The songs have this amazing vibe of "death, despair, destruction" that I don't think I've ever really heard pulled off like they did. Imagine taking the shear anger of a deathcore song (its a cliched genre, but those are some PISSED OFF sounding guys), and bottling it up into and industrial / death metal sound (I've been listening to a lot of gorefest lately, so thats what's coming to mind).

Riffs on the guitar use a "base" and "tail" riff structure where you have four or five notes that get repeated, and a tail that changes each "iteration". These riffs can sound like pretty typical thrash or heavy metal riffs at times, at other times, they sound like genuinely creative death metal riffs carrying the "apocalyptic" sound. The guitarist occasionally throws in a brief "mini solo" which usually sounds to be reminiscent of one of the solos off of "Nightmares Made Flesh"  by Bloodbath. The full length solos (the ones that actually are "solos") sound to be effortless and somewhat random improvisations by the guitarist (they're carefully mapped out before, of course, but they have a distinctly natural sound).

The bass is played VERY much like the lead guitar, (first time I heard Physio Prodigy's work I thought the bass guitar was actually rhythm guitar just because of how loud and complex it is). Same riffs structure, not the same riffs, but a similar structure and some very good timing with the guitar. The presence on the bass, as well as its intricacy lend themselves to a very "large" sound with plenty of replay value.

Drums kick hard, seemingly a lot of cymbals and high hats, a but unbalanced with the snares and toms, but the "metallic" sound really drives the industrial side of things (at least, it always has for me). They sound a bit disorganized at times, but the solo in the beginning of scorn is pretty solid, as is the timing

The heavy vocals are cavernous, albeit not as deep as one might hope. The clean vocals have a certain emotional sound to them that sounds wavering and off key at times, but the recording is pretty rough, so its somewhat hard to tell.

While the recording quality as of the posting of this review pretty much sucks, Physio Prodigy are lined up to be a very serious contender in the field of industrial death metal once they re-record their stuff (which they plan to do). Perhaps the weakest element here is the drums, which still successfully keep the time and meet what I've recognized as the genre standard. Once the tracks have been re recorded I can better assess the vocals, but if what I predict is right, they'll be nearly on the same level as the guitar work. Overall, fantastic sound, very much worth a listen.

9.5/10
http://www.youtube.com/user/PhysioProdigyMusic?feature=mhum

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