California Progressive Metal pioneers and innovators Psychotic Waltz debuted in 1990 with their independently financed A Social Grace. Three more studio albums followed before their breaking up in the late mid-90's. The original members reunited in 2010, touring Europe in support of Nevermore and Symphony X on The Power Of Metal tour. That was actually the first and only time I saw Psychotic Waltz live and I was quite impressed with their sound. Since then they have been playing together in their core line-up from 1985. However in all this time no new record was produced. Now Psychotic Waltz return with their highly anticipated 5th studio album following up 1996's Bleeding and thus the first new music in 23 years.
The God-Shaped Void is a one-hour prog trip in 11 songs. Psychotic Waltz displays a very unique sound. Overall, the album is more prog rock than metal. I would describe as a modern take of early Pink Floyd meets David Bowie and Jethro Tull (yes, there's a flute, but not overused) with a touch of 80's Queensrÿche. There are no bad songs and the album flows beautifully, soon enough the melodies and catchy choruses start to get stuck in your head. It offers quite some diversity and songs may take different directions. The album opens with the single "Devils and Angels" which is a great opener but I can't stop thinking of David Bowie's "All the Young Dudes" intro riff when I listen to it. "Stranded" and "Back to Black" pick up the heaviness and speed. "All the Bad Men" gets sludgy and flows seamlessly into the epic and emotional "The Fallen". Here the Queensrÿche parallel is inevitable. Singer Devon Graves shows great versatility but never going into irritating territory. In the slower tempo "Demystified" the band goes more 70's with some beautiful acoustic guitars and Devon Graves put his flute to work. Some songs are also simpler like "Season of the Swarm" which is a rocker. All of it is executed brilliantly by the whole band and perfectly captured with a pristine and clear production.
After 25 years, Psychotic Waltz returns with The God-Shaped Void, a well-written record with top-notch performances. Like many progressive rock albums, it is a grower and it requires some attention to capture all the nuances. I'm not an expert in their discography, but year 2020, Psychotic Waltz sound like a vital modern prog band with clear roots in the old school prog rock and metal. Highly recommended to any prog fan.
SCORE: 83/100
Genre: Progressive Rock
Released by InsideOutMusic on February 14th, 2020
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Rating System
96 - 100 Perfect
88 - 95 Excellent
84 - 87 Great
80 - 83 Very Good
75 - 79 Good
69 - 74 Mixed
58 - 68 Bad
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