Philadelphia genre-bending extremists Backslider have unleashed their latest single titled “Pseudomessiah.” The dark and sonically pummeling single is taken from the band’s forthcoming album Psychic Rot, which is set to be released February 11 via To Live A Lie Records. The track is presented in the form of a mind-melting music video by Aaron Nichols (Nerve Altar Records).
The unrelenting, high-energy, and riff-packed album shows the band masterfully fusing thrashy swagger with mangled hardcore punk, jarring power violence, dark melodicism, and the grit n’ grime of sludgy sonic devastation. With Psychic Rot, Backslider shows blatant disregard for the conventions of conformity—resulting in ferocious anthems of adrenaline-pumping and mutated mayhem.
Since the bands formation in 2008, Backslider’s many moods have been on display through multiple EP’s, a critically acclaimed LP (Motherfucker, 2016), and a massive touring history that includes sharing the stage with the likes of Full Of Hell, Wake, The Body, Infest, Despise You, Magrudergrind, and more.
Always evolving, Backslider draws influence from from obscure prog to the Melvins to ’80s death/thrash, West Coast powerviolence, the sonic textures of dark wave, and the chaotic excess of grind, all while exploring themes of psychological horrors, overwhelming dread, addiction/recovery, and the slippery slope of paranoia that comes from extreme isolation. While wearing these influences on their sleeves, Backslider have crafted their most deliberate, self-aware, and profound album to date.
Psychic Rot was recorded in January, 2021 at Developing Nations Studios in Baltimore, MD by Kevin Bernsten. Vocalist and guitarist Logan Neubauer shares: “We have been recording with Kevin at Developing Nations since our 2012 ‘Maladapted’ release. We met him through his band Triac, with whom we share our drummer (Jake Cregger). He knows what we’re capable of and what we want to capture. He knows how to filter that through his sonic sensibilities and always nails it. We got to Baltimore the day after the insurrection in D.C. so that kind of nervous, uncertain energy may have influenced the session.”
Psychic Rot track list:
1. Asymetric Torment
2. Pseudomessiah
3. Collision of Desire
4. Bone Thief
5. Mortuary Art
6. Goat Snuff
7. Corpseflower
8. The Floating Door
Preorder Psychic Rot through To Live A Lie Records here.
Image courtesy of Backslider
