Psychobabylon – Embrace The Strange

.@louelladeville_ @PlanetMosh review of Embrace The Strange by .@Psychobabylon1 released via Plague Dog Records.

Psychobabylon released second album Embrace The Strange via Plague Dog Records on 1st May 2014. Formed in 2009 in Selby, West Yorkshire the band have supported the likes of Girlschool and (one of my faves – the mighty) Towers of London. Embrace The Strange follows debut album Welcome to Planet Babylon. I’ve enjoyed seeing the band live a couple of times now and they kindly gave me a copy of this album at NLC/RAPCA Festival 2014 for review. See below for links to interview and review from NLC/RAPCA and a live recording of Love and War, the last track on the album, recorded at The Snooty Fox, Wakefield in August 2013.

The album cover artwork by Yazi Bathory depicts a white faced lady with red lips, stitches at either side of the mouth and made up black eyes, a little similar to that of Black Eyed Sons by The Quireboys both album released to a similar time frame so, I’m not suggesting any copying here, just noting the similarity.

Embrace The Strange starts with minute long intro which includes howling winds, screams and sirens and leads nicely into opening track Horror with the first words being a yelled ‘Fuck You.’ With it’s fast drum beat and some siren style riffage it reminded me in Stone Temple Pilots’ Sex Type Thing a catchy opener. Buried Alive’s opening riffs were a bit Remedy by Rose Tattoo and led to some superfast riffs and bullet drums. Ain’t No Different was very reminiscent of Velvet Star the band who Ginna the drummer was formerly a member of, so no doubt his influence in this one. Dark Valentine with it’s acoustic guitars is a twisted kind of love song ‘They say a young girl died today, as soon as I heard, I knew, no doubt it was you’ ‘Be my Dark Valentine’ so not exactly a happy song and this album is about embracing the strange and the strange this is, this one reminded me of a Billy Bragg type protest number but not in a bad way it’s a beautiful ballad type number.

The title track Embrace the Strange is another one which had me thinking of Velvet Star with some added gothic overtones, say Sisters of Mercy or The Mission. Babylon a much punkier song with it’s ‘Hey Ho Let’s Goes’ was something like Beat the Bastards by The Exploited meets The Ramones. Speaking of Babylon Insanity was another Punky one Bauhaus’ Lagartija Nick meets Babylon’s Burning by The Ruts. Dead and Gone another acoustic one which I’d probably skip but, I’m more of a fast songs woman and, if you personally like ballads it’s fine. Pantomime starts off slowly then speeds up, slows down again then, guess what speeds up again and has a chorus we can all join in with ‘Behind You, Behind You’ and finally we come to the last track Love and War all’s fair in…. and it’s fair to say this is a great one with good riffage and a good rhythm section to end the album on a high note. A fantastic second album from Psychobabylon although, to be fair, I would probably have given 9/10 but I can’t give half a star so I’m going to be generous and give this one 5 stars. Highlight track, well there are several good tracks on here to choose from but I’m going to have to go with The Exploited meets The Ramones and pick Babylon.

Track List: –
Intro
Horror
Buried Alive
Ain’t So Different
Dark Valentine
Embrace The Strange
Babylon
Insanity
Dead and Gone
Pantomime
Love and War

Band Members: –
Rusty – Vox
Robbie G – Guitar + Vox
Spike – Lead Guitar
Clouse – Bass
Ginna – Drums + Vox

Links: –
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Psychobabylon
Twitter: https://twitter.com/Psychobabylon1