Wednesday, July 30, 2008

PSYCHRIST: Debauching the Minions


Produced by Astennu and Lachlan Mitchell
Released: 2002

Psychrist were ten-year veterans of Australian death metal when this album was unleashed, and Debauching the Minions was ample testament to a band that managed to stick around so long, through shaky line-ups and bad record deals. Each new release saw them surpassing the one before in malice and intensity. Debauching the Minions is nothing less than a monolith of pure brutality, a destructive, unforgiving slab of furious hatred.

A crack of thunder heralds the approach of ‘Scourge’ like a malevolent storm, and so it is: blazing black metal riffing with ultra-gutteral demonic death metal vocal rumbles. Some bands try mixing death and black and fudge it, but Psychrist had no such problems, combining the best and most extreme elements of both styles seamlessly and thus making for an incredibly crushing and blasting set of tracks. The likes of ‘Godfucked’, ‘Haven of Betrayal’ and the title track are absolutely immense, unceasing walls of hate that conjure images of some demonic horde laying seige to the gates of heaven themselves and a new version of ‘The Shroud of Profanity’ brings the album to a cataclysmic finale, with guitarist Yuri Ward’s acoustic closer ‘Harbouring the Fire’ the only respite from the violence.

Debauching the Minions is a masterpiece of Australian metal that may be difficult to find but well worth seeking.


  1. Scourge
  2. Depraved Humanity
  3. Haven of Betrayal
  4. Debauching the Minions
  5. Godfucked
  6. Dead Emotion
  7. Severance
  8. Shroud of Profanity
  9. Harbouring the Fire

Rating: 94%

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