French band PSYTRONIX was formed in 2000, as a more or less direct continuation of a previous band from what I understand, and released their debut album “Gone With the Time” through French label Brennus the same year. The band would later release a second album, “Servilization”, in 2003, and from what I understand they disbanded some time after that.
What they have to offer on their debut album is a blend of traditional heavy metal and old school thrash metal of passable quality. There’s some focus on melody, but most of all this is all about riff cascades in varying degrees of pace and intensity. They opt for a compact, concise guitar sound, leaving room for some gentler careful inserts along the way, but controlled aggression is probably something of a key word when describing the overall mood and atmosphere I guess.
It would appear that this is a band rather fond of 80’s metal, as traces of early Yngwie Malmsteen and Iron Maiden do appear from time to time, and slightly more so riff constructions and relatively slower paced sequences that should sound familiar to just about anyone who have listened to Metallica’s “Master of Puppets” a few times. Most of all this band and this album is all about another band though, namely Megadeth. The manner in which the greater majority of the compositions are set up will give instant associations to various incarnations of Megadeth, from the earlier days to the mid 90’s or thereabouts, and for anyone that might have any doubts about what appears to be their major source of inspiration a cover of Megadeth’s Reckoning Day has been chosen as the concluding track on this disc.
Mimicking Megadeth with a few additional flavors thrown in to add a bit of variety and to avoid being described as a purebred clone band is a nice enough approach for a young band, and opening piece Turning to the Rust and The Corridor of Sweat towards the end of this production documents that the band has (or perhaps rather had) some talent in that department. What ruins the positive impression a bit are the lead vocals of Arno Cormann however, by plan or accident mimicking Mustaine’s vocal snarls in terms of tonal range and delivery both. Or at least he makes an attempt at doing so, and not a very successful one to my ears. It just doesn’t come across as sincere, and with a French accent added in the end result, at least to my ears, becomes quite the distraction.
“Gone With the Time” isn’t a production that comes with a strong recommendation, but to those with a keen interest in bands that are inspired by and tries to sound like Megadeth they might just come across as a fascinating experience. An album with a fairly narrow appeal in other words, at least as I regard it, but not quite without redeeming qualities either.
My rating: 47/100
