Sometimes you can hear from the very first track that this must be a masterpiece – Event Horizon is an epic-bombastic track, catchy, the clean voice has a haunting quality. And indeed, I should not get disappointed when listening further.
PTSD (it stands for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder) was formed in 2005, in 2008 they released their debut album "Burepolom", which captured the interest of the US director Richard Terrasi of Dark Vision Films, so he included 3 songs of the album into the "Am I Evil" soundtrack. The film won the best director award in the Horror Festival in USA.
Soon after the band toured in Europe with EVER GREY and starts to work on the new album. Deciding that they want the best of the best, they hire Marco Minnemann (Kreator, Necrophagist, Ephel Duath, Joe Satriani) to record the drums parts, and Jim Caruana (2 Grammies for Beyonce's hits “B Day” and “I Am Sasha Fierce” and winner of the Golden Globe and Academy Award for Top Gun theme “Take My Breath Away”, worked with Aerosmith, Lenny Kravitz, Black Eyed Peas) as producer, who mixed and mastered the album. That might be the reason why it took until now to release the second album “Sense Of Decay”. But it was worth the wait.
More than 60 min high quality music that takes you on an emotional rollercoaster – aggression and passion, epic beauty and melancholy (Staring the Stormwall). Sometimes it´s hard to believe that there is just one “Henry Guy” doing all the voices and choirs – chapeau! The melodies are catchy, the songs provide a good mix of heavy (even real tough stuff with growls, e.g. Suicide Attitude, By A Thread) and Alternative-Pop, balancing ear-candy quality and complexity. The title track is in itself a masterpiece, “Solar Matter Loss” is a ballad beyond kitsch, and the Anastacia cover "Heavy On My Heart" doesn´t sound like one – the band made it totally their own song.
Only the “Event Horizon” remix by Forgotten Sunrise turned out very experimental – still a nice closing of a brilliant album.
Summing up:
A very appealing mixture of heavy riffs, complex drumming, Prog structures and a certain "easy-listening" pop appeal - a bit like Meshuggah meets 30 Seconds To Mars. Definitely a recommendation!
HENRY GUY - VocalsS
YORGA - Lead Guitars
JASON - Rhythm Guitars
ROB STAR - Bass
LANCS – Live Drums
Studio-Drummer for this album: Marco Minnemann
PS: Coverartwork: Colin Marks (Strapping Young Lad, Exodus, Suicide Silence, Nevermore)
