CoC : Mass Psychosis - Face : Review

Mass Psychosis - _Face_
(No Bull, 1995)
by: Brian Meloon (5 out of 10)

This is a re-release on CD of a bunch of stuff from New Jersey's Mass Psychosis; their demo _Face_ (1991), seven inches _My Private Hell_ and _Goremachine_ (including revocalized versions), and a new track, "I Own Your Soul", from 1993. It's all the same basic heavy thrash mixed with death metal style, but there's a good deal of variety and some melody as well. It's not really innovative, but _Face_ would have been quite impressive in 1991. As it is now, it's a little cliche. It's still reasonably good, but they never really put things together to make a great song. They seem to always manage to mix really bad stuff in with their cool stuff. It's most likely just my personal bias, but it seems like they have more potential than they're exploiting. The playing is decent, and the vocals aren't too bad, though they can be a little obnoxious. Still, nothing about this really strikes me as outstanding. Their newer stuff on here does get better, so I'll give them credit for that. In any case, I'd hesitate to recommend this to all but die-hards, unless you want a version of _Face_ on CD.

(article published 9/2/1996)