Album Review - Psychosomatic

The Great Metal Debate Podcast

Psychosomatic is the impressive new full-length album from North American power metal act Immortal Guardian. Every song is listenable on its own, and over the course of the entire album there’s a good track-to-track ebb and flow. I strongly recommend ‘Psychosomatic’ and would like to rate it highly overall. However, I do have one caveat that makes the album somewhat difficult to evaluate. Musically, Immortal Guardian is fairly progressive, albeit adhering to mostly traditional song structures. They use a lot of keyboard, at least for power metal this side of the Atlantic, both to provide backing soundscape as well as melody lines and leads. Vocally, their singer Carlos Zema is a quintessential power metal vocalist – bringing to the table solid clean singing, vocal rasp, and excellent high pitched screams – I would compare him favorably to Tim “Ripper” Owens although Zema has his own voice and style. The album Psychosomatic starts off very fast and heavy, with the first three tracks probably being three of the best out of the ten on the album. The anthemic album opener and title track has an intro that gives off a very cool, Arabesque vibe transitioning into powerful riffs, and a bridge that beautifully builds the tension in the song. I feel myself banging my head and singing along to this one. “Read Between The Lines” and “Lockdown” both embody a winning formula of uptempo power and melody with memorable choruses as well as some tricky nuances lurking below the surface for those listening closely. Another noteworthy track is “Phobia” which features a manic keyboard intro and another killer, catchy chorus. The album grows a little less vigorous and more introspective as you go through the tracklist, with the later songs “Candlelight” bringing a slower tempo and soft, tasteful solo, “Self-Isolation” giving Zema a break for a completely instrumental track, and “Find A Reason” perhaps the most commercially accessible song. The album concludes perfectly with the uplifting “A New Day Rising” featuring a punchy melody with epic, emotional lyrics. Again, the entirety of Psychosomatic is so very well done and, two full-length albums into Immortal Guardian, I certainly want to sing the praises of guitarist and keyboardist Gabriel Guardian who is the primary songwriter behind this band. Power metal is such a hard subgenre to innovate within – the line between masturbatory prog and super cheese is super difficult to walk. Gabriel’s song construction is so solid, nothing too crazy but also never predictable and his guitar work is great – skillfully considered leads that never noodle and always leave you wanting a bit more. Overall these guys do everything well, and Psychosomatic is a gem of heavy metal musicianship. Now for my single caveat. Far be it for me to question the artistic inspiration of musicians; ultimately they should follow wherever the creative flow leads them to express themselves. That said, I do wonder whether these songs – all of them about the experience of the COVID pandemic and lockdown – will translate to the world, hopefully beginning later this year, where our lives aren’t dominated by it and maybe everybody just wants to move on. Am I really going to want to put this album on in two years for a listening experience where I relive the pandemic? I genuinely can’t say. And am I going to want to pump my fists and bellow the chorus to “Lockdown” or “Psychosomatic” live ? I honestly don’t know the answer. Immortal Guardian are super talented musicians who have put out a fantastic second album in Psychosomatic - the music here is consistently first rate and that will never change. Whether the subjective experience of listening to this album will be the same five or ten years removed, we’ll have to wait to see.