I remember, in 2003, I was browsing through Relapse's website looking for some of their videos to watch. I at least got into Matt Pike's High on Fire and the Australian band Alchemist from that torpid day. High on Fire had a killer video for Devilution and Alchemist had an equally awesome video for the surreal First Contact. Let's stick to just Alchemist for the moment. First Contact was a great first song to hear. It's the album opener from Austral Alien and it had the essence of what these guys are about. I loved that album and went looking for their back catalogue to find that they had a sonic evolution somewhat akin to Amorphis'.

They'd gone from having a very original death metal sound (with a bit of psychedelic and cosmic influences that made them sound original) earlier in their career to what Austral Alien had turned into.  I realized that Austral Alien was a lot softer and produced than their releases prior to this. It also had a lot more electronic elements. Those not familiar with this band - mind you, electronic as in not trip-hop, not techno, not trance, not house and not drum-and-bass. I'm talking atmospheric soundscapes and psychedelic flourishes. They even hired Nick Wall to provide this during their live shows. The album had a lot more of the delay-laden cleanish guitars doing its wall-of-sound thing alongside the distorted metal guitars. It was to an extent even stoner friendly. I loved their approach to the music, loved what they achieved with the end product and totally dug the artwork and the layout design by the guitarist Roy Torkington too.

Well that was a good four years ago. 2007's Tripsis is Alchemist's sixth full length album and what they've done here is quite simple in theory and great in execution. Just go a bit heavier and rawer than on the last album but layered with a huge dose of the psychedelic/space elements. Keep everything else about their evolution in tact.

Wrapped in a Guilt kickstarts this album with a vibe carried over from the last one. Groovy drumming, layers of trippy soundscapes added and catchy songwriting. Tongues and Knives is where it gets more brutal and in your face, it paves way to a noisy passage halfway through to close and resolve the song out. They almost repeat this style in CommunicHate, it abruptly ends the brutal spree around the 3 and a half minute mark and goes into a noisy electronic loop to end the song.

One of my favourite tracks on this album is Nothing in No Time that begins in an eerie clean fashion leading into a simple thrashy verse in turn leading into the eastern sounding guitar harmonized bits. But the centre-piece of the album for me is the chorus of this song where everything gets stripped down to the groovy brutal riff and Adam Agius growling "Don't Give Up, Don't Give In...". Great play with dynamics and a lesson in brilliant songwriting and arrangements. Like on this song, their usage of exotic scales are often found on the album in the form of lead guitar lines, riffs, melodies and the psychedelia itself. I strongly believe these help keep the music otherworldly and ergo, blend with their style too.

This is a persistently asskicking motherfucker throughout. Highly recommended.

Band Lineup:

    * Adam Agius − vocals, guitar, keyboards
    * Roy Torkington − guitars, artwork, layout and design
    * John Bray − bass guitar
    * Rodney Holder − drums
    * Nick Wall - live samples/electronics

Year of Release: 2007

Label: Relapse