THERE was a moment during their set supporting Obituary in Sydney in 2024 when it became obvious to this writer that Psycroptic had become a genuinely popular band. The audience reaction to their set that night was something normally reserved for much more famous acts, like the band they were supporting.
Psycroptic’s easy-going vocalist Jason Peppiatt smiles at the memory.
“That tour was awesome,” he recalls. “We toured with Obituary, I think, back in 2012 or 2014. We toured Europe with them and it was killer. It was cool to go out on the road with them and I think we did a show with them in Hobart and that was sold out.”
After many years of headlining their own shows to already dedicated audiences, Peppiatt says the band enjoys going out on support runs.
“It’s nice going out on those support slots. We’ve been doing the headlining thing so much for so many years, for the last few years to actually be able to go out and do support slots and play to a different audience. It’s been awesome. We had the Obituary tour, then last year we went out with Ne Obliviscaris, and we had a lot of people coming and telling us they’d heard the name but not the music.”
Many fans are still learning about Psycroptic’s music, even as they reach the 25th anniversary of their debut album The Isle of Disenchantment. In May they played with Fear Factory in their home town of Hobart to the biggest crowd they’ve ever fronted in that city. In spite of being one of Tasmania’s most prominent musical exports, they were a new band to a lot of the crowd.
“I know we’ve been around for a long time, and I suppose back in the early days, we were in the [local] newspaper and TV news a fair bit, but with Fear Factory, they’ve got a lot of 90s alternative crowd so there was a shitload of people there who had never even heard of us before. There was a bit over a thousand people there. It was massive. The Odeon Theatre was absolutely rammed. It was nice to be part of such a big and iconic show in our home town.”
Psycroptic’s popularity should really come as little surprise. They have been a constant feature on the local metal touring circuit for 25 years and done innumerable overseas jaunts in that time. Their albums win consistently high praise. The Haley brothers, Joe and Dave – guitarist and drummer respectively – are also in demand session musicians and Joe is a sought-after producer. Their music has been sampled by EDM acts and they had Tim Rogers giving them a shout-out during the Hard-Ons’ set at Froth and Fury in January, directly following another excoriating Psycroptic performance.
“That was a funny one!” Peppiatt remembers it fondly. “I was standing there talking to Luke Graham, who fills in for [US-based bassist Todd Stern] on one-off Australian shows. Me and him were talking and I realised Tim Rogers was standing patiently off to the side, and he said, ‘Jason, excuse me. I just want to say, I’m a huge fan of Psycroptic.’ I was like, WHAT? Apparently he was a fan of the band and he’d been listening to us for a long time. To me, that’s just mental.”
He appears to be still blown away by the knowledge that one of Australia’s most lauded frontmen is a fan of his technical death metal band.
“One of the first shows I ever went to as a kid was You Am I and Tumbleweed in Hobart,” he says. “It’s absolutely mental that me, at 13 years old, the first frontman that I ever saw live comes up to me, doing a totally different genre to what I’m doing, and saying he’s a fan and has a great appreciation of what we do. It’s cool. Just those sort of moments that happen with us these days.”
Peppiatt has been with Psycroptic now since 2004, making his recording debut on 2006’s Symbols of Failure, an intensely fast and technical album that he describes as “psycho”.
“I can’t believe we used to be able to play like that!” he admits. “That album is psycho. It’s so fast and intense and there’s so many parts going a million miles an hour, and I think, ‘How did we even remember all this stuff?’”
Psycroptic’s music has evolved slowly since those days, adding more groove and feel to their technical attack and expanding their sound with acoustics and dark ambience. Peppiatt’s thoughtful, often socially aware lyrics have also added a depth of character.
“It’s my bird’s eye look at the world and what’s going on and trying to look at things a little bit from both sides of the political spectrum. It’s kind of me looking at the whole thing and going, ‘Why are people such cunts to each other?’”
He apologises for his coarseness.
“I guess it’s my bird’s eye view of the world without trying to take sides,” he continues. “My observations, not as much as my opinions, if that makes sense.”
The most recent addition to Psycroptic’s arsenal is Origin frontman Jason Keyser, who shares vocal duties across the latest album. His involvement with the band goes back more than a decade, when he stood in for Peppiatt on an overseas tour.
“When [my] kids were little I couldn’t do every tour,” Peppiatt explains. “Sometimes we’d tour on cycles, and we’d be out back to back to back on and off for six months at a time, and sometimes it would get to the point where I’d have to sit tours out. Keyser would be the one who would sit in for me. He’s crewed a lot for us out on the road. He’s been our driver, he’s been our merch guy. There was a huge period of time when, whenever we were touring in the States, he was always there in some calibre.”
Eventually the offer was made to contribute to a recording, and Peppiatt and Keyser shared vocals on Psycroptic’s 2021 EP “The Watcher of All”. Divine Council offered another opportunity for them to work together, and on the subsequent tour Keyser stepped in once again when Peppiatt was sidelined by health issues.
“After that,” the singer goes on, “we were like, let’s get him on this album. But this time around he offered us his services in writing a couple of songs. So we said, let’s see what you can do with it. It will give us a fresh perspective, it will be fun for me to sing from someone else’s vision of Psycroptic’s sound. And he did two songs. One of them ended up being ‘No Blade of Grass’, which was the second single, and it just works.”
The Pulse of Annihilation features both singers working off each other throughout, another development of the band’s slowly evolving style. The working dynamic is sort of conditional, however.
“We’re never going to do the two-vocalists live thing, because we just don’t think we’re that kind of a band and that it would be a bit cheesy. But the way it’s working, it’s cool. For now, if it’s working, why change it? It’s been great fun, we’ve really enjoyed it. In Psycroptic there’s no egos, so there’s been no fucking power struggle or anything between the two of us.”
Jason Peppiatt emphasises that despite how serious Psycroptic may be as a band, the main aspect for all of them is making sure they are enjoying themselves. Being in a death metal band is never going to make anyone a lot of money. It’s something they do for the love of it.
“We’re twenty two years deep, we’re a successful band but it’s never been our job or our career financially. It’s always been something that’s fun, so if it’s fun and we enjoy it, just fucking go for it! That’s what this is all about, and I think that’s where we’re lucky that we have had quite a serious career as a band but we are still coming out and having a great time.”
Psycroptic hit the road as headliners again next month, taking Pennsylvanians Rivers of Nihil, Melbourne’s Growth and Slaughtercult from Sydney out for a capital city run. Ahead of that are three shows in Tasmania. The entire tour looks like it’s going to do very well, but even if it doesn’t, Peppiatt says, everyone will still have a good time.
“We’re happy if we’re playing in Buttfuck, Nowhere, to twenty people having the sickest time. Because we are too. We still put on a show because there’s twenty people who’ve paid their money to see our show, and they deserve to enjoy every moment of it.”
THE PULSE OF ANNIHILATION TOUR
August 6: Pub Rock Diner, Devonport (with Body Prison and Pulverized Cranial Matter)
August 7: Royal Oak Hotel, Launceston (with Body Prison and Pulverized Cranial Matter)
August 8: The Altar, Hobart (with Body Prison and Pulverized Cranial Matter)
August 13: Magnet House, Perth (with Rivers of Nihil, Growth and Slaughtercult)
August 14: Lion Arts Factory, Adelaide (with Rivers of Nihil, Growth and Slaughtercult)
August 15: Max Watts, Melbourne (with Rivers of Nihil, Growth and Slaughtercult)
August 21: Manning Bar, Sydney (with Rivers of Nihil, Growth and Slaughtercult)
August 22: Necrosonic Festival, Brisbane