PYTHONIC

PYTHONIC     “The Laws Of Karma” EP

By Dr. Abner Mality

I was going to be a lot harsher on “The Laws Of Karma” but a second listen softened me up a bit. Yeah, that’s Dr. Mality, a real softie! Let’s face it, almost every town in Canada and the U.S. has a band like PYTHONIC, trying to mix tough guy groove with the more popular death metal bands. There’s so much of this kind of material, it makes very little lasting impact.

But they do put their heart and soul into it. Anger helps flavor the stew, so to speak. A poor production and mixing job does this EP no favors. It was apparent from the title track that the guitars lack punch, bass is soft and drums don’t pop. Combined with the blatant unoriginality of the title track and “Feed The Flames”, I was less than impressed.

But things do start to pick up and there’s raw basic fury behind “Set You Free” that cuts through the mediocre sound. This would be a killer live. “Sentience” and “Venom” also have that elemental energy…they are trying hard and singer Morgan Warriner sounds genuinely pissed.

In the end, it’s a nice try from PYTHONIC but there’s just too much of this kind of thing out there to make a true impact. A crisper production would definitely bump things up.

PYTHONIC