:: The Psyke Project - Apnea

The Psyke Project

Twelve months after being released in Scandinavia, Lifeforce Records have picked up Danish act The Psyke Project‘s third album 'Apnea’ for worldwide release. Licensed through a label such as Lifeforce Records, it‘s not hard to guess what sort of music The Psyke Project produced on their latest effort. And if you were to hazard a guess at something along the lines of metallic hardcore, you wouldn't be far off the mark. The five-piece act's latest effort certainly fits within the metalcore genre. But the band also stretches out a little more than most by incorporating influences from the likes of Isis, Converge and early Neurosis, with many of the songs featured on 'Apnea’ extended out to allow atmospheric passages creating different moods and textures beyond the standard metalcore parameters. The unfortunate thing is that while some of the instrumentation on the album is quite interesting and angular enough to pique the listener‘s interest; the songs themselves just don't seem to be that entirely memorable overall. The album does have its moments. Both the opening track 'The Voice Of Commandment’ and the follow-up track ‘I Get Paralysed’ are textured numbers with plenty of variation on the music front, with an equally intense and scathing vocal presence out front. But by the time the album reaches the lethargic and drawn out third track ‘Panic’, it all tends to start to sound the same. The album does show a little bit of promise around the middle with tracks such as ‘Physical Romance’, ‘Love Shown In A Handful Of Dirt’ and ‘Poems Written By Kings’, but it isn‘t until the final track 'Not In My Time’ that there‘s any real break from the overtly familiar. Featuring a guest vocal performance from Silas Bjerregaard; 'Not In My Time’ is a deceptively heavy ballad with some truly memorable twists, and definitely one of the true stand outs on the album. The Psyke Project are certainly an interesting act, but seem to be lacking the right combination in the song writing department to make their songs really stand out like they should. In other words ‘Apnea’ has its moments, but sadly just not enough of them to really give the album that something special over others attempting to evoke similar sounds.