Audio

Psychic Blood – Waves Will Kill You

Western Mass trio Psychic Blood is next in line to release another great EP on New York label Wharf Cat RecordsAlien is a sweet collection of dark, melodic noise rock, born out of sleepless nights and fever dreams. Though the title might suggest otherwise, Alien is not so much about the extraterrestrial – the lyrics weave a story of self-alienation and detachment of the surrounding world.

We can’t specifically remember the first time we heard Psychic Blood. We found the band’s 2012 7” Drrrty on one of our Monday morning blog searches – this is when we download random stuff and put it in a playlist for the coming week. But unlike about 95% of what went into the playlist that week, Psychic Blood stood out.

psychic blood

Psychic Blood (short for Psychedelic Bloodbaths) is a three-piece from beautiful Western Mass. And though it’s quite the hotbed for punk and noise acts, Psychic Blood’s sound might not be as easily digestible as that of a lot of bands spawn there.

The Western Mass scene is small but sweet and has a lively culture of bands coming through on tour. It’s not surprising thus that Psychic Blood is very connected to the Sonoran desert freaks from the always amazing Ascetic House (with whom they released their 2013 cassette Nightmare Beaches), and to those hailing from the swamps of Florida such as Merchandise, and the Tampa-gone-Providence guys from The Ukiah Drag, whose ZZ Ramirez is also responsible for Alien’s front cover art.

We are very happy to premiere the song Waves Will Kill You. It starts off sounding like one of the heavier songs on the EP, with the pounding guitar riff and the white noise of the rolling waves in the background. But towards the chorus, the waves break, and singer and guitarist Jason Vachula tries to not quite comfort us “Waves will kill you… there is nothing to do.” It’s dark and oppressive – we can almost feel the cold sweat that must have been keeping them awake at night.

psychic blood
We are so excited they were picked up by our friends at Wharf Cat Records, who are not only one of the most distinct labels active right now, but also one of the most prolific – with 8 releases so far this year, and planning 4 more. They surely must be mad, but we’re loving it.

Alien comes out on September 18 and can be pre-ordered now.