Adramelech, long viewed as a younger brother to legendary Finnish death metal band Demigod, ride again with the re-issue of their classic Psychostasia on Xtreem Records. Revered for their ability to mix subtle melody with mid-paced death metal rhythms to produce an enveloping sense of pervasive darkness, Adramelech like Demigod found their way into many death metal collections but remained out of the spotlight that favored more dramatic bands.
The new version of Psychostasia features three live tracks, two taken from the Seven EP, and remastering of the original album. According to those who have heard it, this produces a louder but more even sound while preserving the nocturnal atmosphere and menacing ambiguity of the original.
Xtreem Music, a continuation of Repulse Records, continues a long tradition of putting out quality underground releases and now augments that tradition by adding quality re-issues such as this one to its catalog. A new generation of fans — being of the personality type too alert to be fooled by the circus music of metalcore or bore-drone of shoegaze black metal — may discover the majestic power and infernal might of classic Finnish death metal with this release.
Track List:
- Heroes in Godly Blaze 4:11
- Psychostasia 4:06
- Seance of Shamans 3:27
- The Book of the Worm 6:11
- Thoth (Lord of the Holy Words) 3:10
- Mythic Descendant 4:19
- As the Gods Succumbed 5:02
- Across the Gray Waters 3:59
- Intro – Heroes in Godly Blaze (live) 5:51
- The Sleep of Ishtar (live) 3:56
- Seven (live) 4:18
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUOB3_2O4_M
You can purchase Adramelech – Psychostasia here:
Tags: adramelech, death metal, demigod, Finnish Death Metal, xtreem music
I had no idea that Xtreem was a continuation of Repulse. Looking at their catalog, that makes a lot of sense. I’ve already got the Blackened reissue of this album with the Seven and Fall EPs, but I would advise anyone not familiar with Adramelech to pick this reissue up. Hopefully they’ll do something with Pure Blood Doom or the Spring of Recovery 7″ next.
the fucking lables have been flogging this POS band for years because everybody just wants DEMIGOD to make another album, it’s not even close. they might be neighbors in bromance in real life but these two bands have nothing in common but guitar sound. ADRAMEFELCH has lots of borrowed glam metal riffs spruced up with extra downstrokes but it ruins the death metal mood, just kills it. they drop into a cool anti-groove and then suddenly here’s a sunset strip hard rocker riff ruining everything. it’s like they have two songwriters, dr jekyl and mr hyde, one of who likes to write death metal and then the other guy starts playing guitar and fucks it all up. avoid everything from this band except seven, they’ve got a few good tracks there.
I’m one of the biggest Finn-death fans you’ll ever find however Adramelech’s back catalog (after the demo’s and 7 inch) doesn’t appeal to me much. It was years ago when I last heard Psychostasia and the EP’s so maybe I’ll revisit them.
“…it’s like they have two songwriters, dr jekyl and mr hyde, one of who likes to write death metal and then the other guy starts playing guitar and fucks it all up.”
Haha. Nice description! Makes me think of Opeth, only their brutal angry death metal parts are even whimpier than their accoustic stuff.
Pretty surprised by some of the opinions in the comments here. For me Adramelech are one of the stand-out classics of Finnish death metal.
Really not hearing the glam comparison at all, and as far as the acoustic passages/opeth comments – off the top of my head Psychostasia (the album in focus here) has one track that has a clean intro and outro, other than that there is no acoustic material.
correction: theres one other track with a brief clean guitar part, nonetheless, the point still stands.
I purchased the vinyl version, and while I consider this to be the elite of the elite European DM records, there are a couple of major issues with the repress.
1. The live bonus tracks disrupt the flow of the album quite a bit. It was never released on vinyl before, but clearly the band intended side A to close out with “The Book of the Worm”. Instead, this pressing gives us six of the eight songs on side A, which is… idiotic.
2. I heard rumblings that instead of the original master tapes, to which he has access, no doubt, Dave Rotten sourced the vinyl pressing from the CD, which defeats the purpose in a lot of ways. A friend of mine decided to email him to investigate the issue, and Dave’s response was petulant at best, which suggested he had something to hide.
It’s a little late for me, but I’d advise people to steer clear of this reissue. If only for the simple reason that the label is run by a childish thimbledick.
You faggots. This is a perfect Death Metal ALBUM!!!