Canobliss
Psychothermia Independent

by Derric Miller
Staff Writer

Comments: One of the most unique independent metal bands making music today has to be Canobliss. Their debut release, Liberation of Dissonance, received critical acclaim and definitely made those who ensure metal is a large part of their diet froth at the maw. They follow up that CD with a seven-song EP titled Psychothermia, another CD clearly aimed at the bleak state of the world today.

If you haven’t heard Canobliss, they meld sounds from bands like P.O.D., Tool, Death Angel, System of a Down, and other bands that clearly lie a little outside the norm. Normality sucks anyway …

“Notorious” starts the EP, oddly enough a capella, with the words, “Contusions start to falter now.” Huh? Exactly. While still heavy, with the weird cadences and backing off the extreme vocals, you’ll compare the band to Disturbed at times, instead of groups like Shadows Fall. Singer Johan Maldonado shows a flexibility to jump from genre to genre, to heavy mainstream rock vocals to clean, almost alternative deliveries to guttural yelling. Guitarists Samson Pedroza and Jon Russo trade blistering leads and solos, while the rabid talent of Mike Russo on drums powers everything along at a frenzied pace.

Up next is the title track, “Psychothermia.” It begins with a chaotic and noisy explosion, and then slides into a gloomy, slower and foreboding pace. The song itself is about a freefall into insanity, or at least, suicidal depression based on cowardice. Not exactly uplifting, in other words. With biting lyrics like, “Always kneeled to the problems that were facing you and try to run when they come to life,” you’ll hear and feel real anger in this composition. Beyond the negative color and lyrics, it’s still somehow catchy; the refrain “You’ve been down this road before so why you trying to lie?” goes around in your head over and over after hearing the song just once.

Canobliss isn’t afraid to use their bilingual abilities when penning lyrics either. On the song “Adios,” another damning critique of a certain type of weak individual, they flow between English and Spanish with fluid ease. While heavy and melodically cool, this one draws pretty heavily from System of a Down, except that Canobliss clearly wields better guitar skills.

The band gets even weirder on “Take Vics.” It’s actually sort of, well, radio-friendly, if Canobliss ever wanted to venture onto mainstream radio. The bass playing from Chenzo Vidaliz pulls the plow for the entire song, both intricate, groovy and then blasting as the song explodes later. Oh, and always remember Dr. Canobliss’s orders: “Take vics if you live right, right, right!” In this case, “vics” seems to be slang for Vicodin.

The CD ends with a radio edit of an earlier track, “Convicted Again.” The best part about both versions has to be the guitar leads; it’s also refreshing to hear a band use the description “radio edit” and yet lay down some searing leads and solos. As far as singles, though, “Take Vics,” “Adios” or even the title track seem to have the right quotient of hook and substance to catch on the radio, more so than “Convicted Again.”

In the end, Canobliss seems to have matured as songwriters. When you compare this EP to songs like “Insurrection” from their first CD, though, it seems they may have sacrificed some polish for the melodic rawness that made their debut so mesmerizing. Still, Canobliss marches to a beat only they can hear, feel and recreate for you, and the band is well on their way to leaving the underground far behind them.

www.canobliss.com

Track Listing:
1.Notorious
2.Psychothermia
3.Convicted Again
4.Adios
5.Take Vics
6.Slingshot
7.Pangea

Hardrock Haven rating: 7.7/10