Psychic Blood-Autumn Curses CS (2012)

Psychic Blood returns for another round of guitar savagery on their follow up to last autumn's debut EP, "Strain." If you dug that, you'll probably enjoy their full length.

"Visions" picks up where "Strain" left off: heavily distorted, clanging guitar bashes it out with echoey drums, the result falling somewhere between something off MBV's "EVOL" and a Nirvana b-side. "Annihilator" is built around a cascading guitar riff worthy of J. Mascis, although the guitar is mixed at the same level as the drums, so it isn't quite as, well, tyrannically monolithic as a typical Dinosaur, Jr. track. Psychic Blood demonstrates its understanding of the importance of texture with "Roving Mind," a quiet tune with humming, electronic white noise that's almost dreamy. It's effective in setting the first two headbangers apart from what follows, the chaotic "Here is no truth," which could've turned up on one of those old mid-80s SST comps with stuff like BLasting Concept or St. Vitus.

The rest of the album follows the same dynamic, alternating between towering guitar blitzkrieg bashing and downed out noise weirdness. The band's developed their sound a lot since "Strain," and this is worth a careful listen. Check out tracks from the tape on Psychic Blood's soundcloud, here. Damage Mailorder is distributing the tape, out on FeebleMinds Rex-buy it here.