2013
Daring to be different and marching to the beat of your own drummer are qualities I quite rightly admire. Whether that applies to an individual or, in the case of this 5 piece from Leeds, a band it's all the same. It takes courage and conviction to walk alone, but, even if it's justifiably reasonable to choose a off-the-wall band moniker of your own liking, you could end up with a situation where your name (PseudoNympho) almost gets tossed out with the rest of the daily spam. It's actually more funny then anything else, but PseudoNympho's review request/inquire almost slipped past me as I initially mistook the correspondence as some tacky porn spam! Thankfully I did a second peak at the message as "Eponym", the 13-track debut album from this Yorkshire bunch, comes costume packed with track after track of menacing metal that's meant for melting your ears off and crushing your soul into a tiny little ball! Yeah, it wouldn't have been good to miss out on that much fun would it? Not at all. The band, which up-front functions as a tight-nit unit, takes their cue from everyone from Mastodon to Neil Young, but the bulk of their debut album is built, frame by frame and cord by cord, on post-Alice in Chains/Soundgarden/Nirvanna and Tad grunge-love and the power exchange that comes from the likes of Motörhead, Gwar/Lordi and Pantera. While "Eponym" opens with the Tool (by way of Voivod and Pink Floyd) intro track "Apothosis" things get quickly out of hand as lead vocalist/guitarist Wolfgang C. Bailey (who is the real deal on the mic) and his cohorts pull no punches with their socially-conscious, super-charged, ass kicking/take no prisoners modern metal! PseudoNympho, who have a name that I find equally weird and appealing, knock down the doors of traditional rock and roll and slam the listener repeatedly over the head with heavy music that is thankfully also intelligent and insightful. Brains and brutality are not an unknown couple in the world of rock and heavy metal as they've dated on and off for quite some time now. All PseudoNympho does is update the look of that old relationship and approach their music as if it's a cause for them. Their hard rocking style might just have been breed from the DNA of some of greats (AC/DC, Black Sabbath, Danzig, Faith No More and Suicidal Tendencies), but when they take those genes and whip them up in a blender it's all brand new and yeah, kind of magical. What's worthwhile about these lads is that they take hold of their influences and, like a mad artist staring down their latest work, they paint everything in a way that the music within "Eponym" doesn't look back towards the roots and influences but rather forward. Without ever taking their foot off the pedal the band whips out sinister (and surprisingly sincere) post-grunge/modern metal that, lyrically at least, reminds this listener of bands like Megadeth and artists like the one and only Alice Cooper. Perhaps not so much music-wise (although you could argue a case for both those acts within the walls of this LP), but lyric-wise as these songs cut so much deeper then your typical "sex, drugs and rock and roll" heavy metal act would dare imagine. It makes all the difference here as you're forced to look at the music from a different perspective even if it is keeping itself busy by melting your stereo into a bloody mess! Now, since two guitars is just not enough for this band (And why should it be?) vocalist/guitarist Wolfgang C. Bailey is paired up, riff for riff, with Ben Marsden (lead guitar and backing vocals) and Sam "Sam" Evans (rhythm guitar and backing vocals). Last time I recalled looking there were not too many acts raging that kind of guitar set-up although Leatherwolf , who feature the same kind of basic heavy metal riff-age, might count as both an influence and inspiration. If you're keeping track at home with your own scoreboard then you'll have no doubt noticed that PseudoNympho twist-off/pull-off a variety of different influences in making their own Frankenstein-themed monster of a metal group. That's a fair assessment as this group, which features the killer rhythm section of bassist Rio Goldhammer & drummer Don Demrow, takes a little of this and a little of that and, after adding fuel to the fire, burns everything down to the ground with their own hellfire rock and roll! Naturally this slab of fist-banging heavy metal/ rock and roll noise pollution comes highly recommend to those who love to live life loud and proud or those of you just searching for your next favorite heavy metal band.
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