Chuck Schuldiner Project

Monday, May 30, 2016

Pseudo/Sentai - Enter The Sentai


Weird ass Mr Bungle-esque concept records about Power Rangers. Is this what Matt has sunk to covering these days? Apparently yes, and it is glorious. The product of musical mastermind Greg Murphy, Pseudo/Sentai has traditionally put out strange music that forced you to question your paradigms, however this latest offering, the wonderfully weird Enter The Sentai takes things to a whole new level of bizare. There is a very real madness and sense of pure aural chaos here that elevates the work of Pseudo/Sentai to a whole new level. A little less out-there than its predecessor, the almighty BansheeFace, Enter The Sentai sees touches of pop elements and a more streamlined 
overall approach to the music. The instrumentation remains distinct, an there are still random moments of grindcore in between more cohesive passages and so I am constantly left wondering what will happen next. When music becomes a seat of your pants adventure, you know it's worth investing at least a little bit of energy.

The ultimate struggle of this record is that as good as it is it doesn't feel as unified as it should. Murphy has done some awesome feats of guitar playing badassery and his compositional style is totally unique, but when it comes to making a concept record a certain amount of unity is to be expected. This is where Pseduo/Sentai falls a bit flat. Rather than creating an album that feels like a cohesive whole it feels like Pseudo/Sentai use Enter The Sentai to push boundaries with every song. Perhaps I am being a bit too harsh, certainly in the history of the band this stands as one of their most straightforward records to date, but as we've established, Pseudo/Sentai are one of the most wonderfully diverse projects going right now. Consequently the band is at their best when they are being as weird as possible and forcing you to fall ever more deeply in love with every passing minute of it.


This is a band who it can be difficult to properly get into. You can't go into Enter The Sentai expecting normalcy, because you're not going to get it. This is an example of the band reigning it in, and even then they can't do it quite enough for true greatness. This Colin Marston-produced release represents some o the best musicians in the world and will never cease to be exciting to me. I'm curious to hear them continuing evolving though. As is the band remains fabulously bizarre but it leaves the huddled masses unable to truly appreciate what is going on here. Pseudo/Sentai represents so much goddamn talent I just don't want it to become masturbatory. As is, Enter The Sentai is a release that hints at even greater things to come. While it lacks the cohesive magic that defines the greatest concept albums of our generation there is certainly more than enough for any fan of progressive music to want to pick apart for days. Enter The Sentai hints at a brave new world and only the strongest will witness its inception.

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