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Acumen Nation
Psycho the Rapist

Cracknation

Posted: Friday, October 05, 2007
By: Ilker Yücel
Editor

For a band that is often cited as one of the most influential industrial rock bands, Acumen Nation seems fated to suffer misfortune after misfortune. They've endured a significant amount of change over the years, from changing lineups to changing record labels to a changing music scene that seems unwilling to follow their example anymore. Frustrated with the stagnation in the industrial music scene, as well as the socio/political climate of the times, their last album, Anticore was three years in the making, culminating in a full throttle metal assault that was heavier and louder than anything the band had ever recorded. Signing to metal label Crash Music, Anticore proved to be rather unpopular among an array of fans who felt the band had strayed too far from its roots. As if to prove them wrong, front man and founder Jason Novak returned to the studio, cranking the volume up to 11, and recorded Psycho the Rapist.

For those who felt Anticore was too metal, Psycho the Rapist will offer only the slightest bit of solace; the electronics are once again a prominent factor, more so than the last album, but without sacrificing the venomous metal edge. Some bands mellow out over time, but Acumen Nation just seems to get angrier and meaner. The opening track, "Fanglorious" sets the listener up for another blistering attack of raging guitars and searing synths, while "Hatchet Harry" pounds into the listener's brain with complex rhythmic patterns that set Acumen Nation apart from the programmed comfort of most industrial bands today. The same can be said of "Holy Terror," which features Cyanotic's Sean Payne offering some additional programming, and "Remedial Math" with its glitch-laden guitars giving way to an almost indeterminable time signature; evidence of the band's current flirtations with the tech metal styling of groups like Meshuggah and The Dillinger Escape Plan. Of course, it wouldn't be Acumen Nation if there weren't the requisite drum & bass elements, and they come to the fore on "No Imagination" with its gritty, rubbery bass lines and hyperkinetic percussion lines, augmented by those shrill guitars. Oddly enough, the straightforward and danceable beats of "Idle Lysergic Corpse" and the energetic progressions of "Penultimatum" recall the band's early days from albums like Transmissions from Eville or More Human Heart, and "200 Bodies Per Minute" comes in a more dynamic version than the one that appeared on the Mechanical Incest sampler.

Listening to Psycho the Rapist, it immediately becomes clear that Acumen Nation is absolutely furious with the state of things. The album brings the emphasis back to their mix of rock and electronics, and yet somehow manages to pummel the listener harder than Anticore's brutal metal assault. Of course, Psycho the Rapist also comes at a strange time of flux for the Cracknation, following the departure of longtime bassist Eliot Engelman, as well as being the first album to be released exclusively through their own label without outside distribution. One can also surmise from the liner notes that Jamie Duffy's involvement wasn't as extensive as it had been in the past, beckoning questions as to the future of Acumen Nation. Still, with Psycho the Rapist punishing the listener with some of the most teeth-grinding industrial rock ever released, Acumen Nation make it clear that they won't go down quietly. You've been warned!