It’s happening people, Puscifer unveils masterpiece collective on March 31st. This series embraces the group’s prior accomplishment, Existential Reckoning from 2020.
It’s the perfect storm of musical vibrations and vocality that stretches beyond this realm.
Puscifer’s distinctive sound and mystifying presence is captivating and incredible. The group’s collections’ comprises four full-length studio albums: “V” is for Vagina, Conditions of My Parole, Money Shot and Existential Reckoning — in addition to a series of EPs and remixes.
The trio, Maynard James Keenan [vocals] (Tool, A Perfect Circle), Mat Mitchell [guitar, production] and Carina Round [vocals, songwriting] have jointly continued to surprise and surpass all expectations in the music industry. Guest collaborators include Academy Award-winning team of Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross revisionary version “Apocalyptical”. Phantogram touches on “Postulous” while Bring Me The Horizon’s Jordan Fish titillates us with ”Theorem”. Queens of The Stone Age and A Perfect Circle guitar player Troy Van Leeuwen and Tony Hajjar on “Grey Area”.
My personal favorite, “A Singularity (Re-Imagined by Carina Round)”, reveals the bond between man and dog. This visual echoes the loss of Keenan’s beloved dog MiHo. “On Oct. 7, 2021, I lost my Muse. Deadly Little MiHo lost her 2 year battle with pancreatitis and kidney disease. We thought we lost her in late 2019, so I panicked and wrote her this song. We were certain she was done for. But we were blessed with a second chance and a bit more time. I rarely share things like this. Too painful. But this one can’t be kept bottled up. As I have mentioned before, she has been hiding in most of my vocal tracks since 2005. She was either in or near the vocal booth every time I tracked. Her sigh, her bark, sniffle, sneeze. Her jingling collar. Her squeaky toys.”
Round explains her approach to re-working the song: “Maynard’s vocal for this song is synonymously a sorrowful hymn and a siren of celebration. I wanted the main vocal and the bass and drums to be anchors in a sea of jubilant chaos. A kind of controlled cacophony of celebratory joy. Familiar, but a bit unnerving. The horns and saxes at the end are all moving together but somehow so loose, dispersing off into foam and then coming back together into one harmonious wave and then breaking off again, cascading. I feel excited when it’s over and like I want to get back on the ride. Birds, a charm of finches bookend the song. You can feel their energy. And within, there’s Maynard’s lone whistle, mimicking them. The one who keeps them alive and in turn draws his own life force. The synergy of composure and chaos in a dance reverence.”
The band has concurrently announced their first European tour in seven years, with performances slated for Hellfest, Nos Alive and Mad Cool festivals, as well as a round of headlining performances. A brief U.S. trek precedes the European outing. Tickets for all headlining shows (Europe and U.S.) are already on sale. Tickets can be found via Puscifer.com.
Existential Reckoning: Re-Wired tracklist:
- Bread and Circus (Re-imagined by Mat Mitchell)
- Apocalyptical (Re-imagined by Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross)
- The Underwhelming (Re-imagined by Juliette Commagere)
- Grey Area (Re-imagined by Troy Van Leeuwen & Tony Hajjar)
- Theorem (Re-imagined by Sarah Jones & Jordan Fish)
- UPGrade (Re-imagined by Justin Chancellor & Scott Kirkland)
- Bullet Train To Iowa (Re-imagined by Alessandro Cortini)
- Personal Prometheus (Re-imagined by Greg Edwards)
- A Singularity (Re-imagined by Carina Round)
- Postulous (Re-imagined by Phantogram)
- Fake Affront (Re-imagined by Gunnar Olsen)
- Bedlamite (Re-imagined by Daniel P. Carter)
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Disclaimer: All views presented in this album review are those of the reviewer and not necessarily those of Top Shelf Music.
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