The seed of World Maker took shape just as the campaign for Violate Consensus Reality came to a close, with the news that guitarist/vocalist Stefan De Graef was to become a father. This tilting of life’s axis led De Graef, like most fathers-to-be, to re-assess what was really important. As such, the music he was inspired to write felt free of the band’s previous philosophical and spiritual foundations and instead took the form of life lessons for his unborn son, a legacy of love in case something were ever to happen.
This hopeful euphoria shines keenly throughout World Maker as an uncharacteristically optimistic warmth; from the reverberating Rhodes organ on the titular opening track and the meandering, free-jazz inspired guitar solo that introduces “Everything Else is Just The Weather“ to elements of world music, electronica and the otherworldly voice of Dutch multi-instrumentalist and old friend Anthe Huybrechts (Anthe/Helion Creek) most notably on tracks like “Origins” which also features tabla, a pair of indian hand drums, as its propulsive heartbeat.
Whilst Psychonaut’s giant riffs, punishing polyrhythms and guttural vocal rage are more resplendent than ever, there is a wider dynamic spectrum to World Maker that sees the band proudly exploring their more delicate, intimate extremes as well as their most aggressive and abrasive. Not long after the
birth of De Graef’s son came the devastating news that both his own father and Psychonaut bassist/vocalist Thomas Michiels‘ father had been diagnosed with advanced cancers. Living day-to-day and torn between joy and grief, the band found themselves shedding the grand scope and world-shattering agenda of Violate Consensus Reality to focus on the here and now.
Lead single “Endless Currents,” the first full track on the album, explodes in a barrage of staccato guitar tapping but mellows to let the powerful, newly pared back lyrics ring out as a call to embrace the flow and follow joy. The song’s final few words “Lead the way. / Soar. / Everlong.” double as both a greeting and a goodbye as the trio build their formidable post-metal might to a thunderous breaking point. Similarly, the pulsing, propellant “Stargazer,” named so for De Graef’s son being born in stargazer position, pairs delicate guitar motifs and folk-infected optimism with huge and sprawling breakdowns as some of the band’s most genre-pushing work to date; asking difficult but important questions of what happens next.
It is “And You Came With Searing Light“ though that most immediately exemplifies Psychonaut’s re-directed ambition on World Maker, as euphoria collides with blinding fury. The first track written for the album, “…Searing Light” is easily the most complex and initially wouldn’t sound out of place on Violate Consensus Reality. Originally meant to be the new album’s opening track; the decision to defer its impact, not to mention its compositional and dynamic gravity, speaks of a fundamental change to the band’s very core. The words “Discover the world with wide eyes” recurring throughout speak as much to those having lost a part of their world as they do to those seeing it for the first time.
Amidst such turbulent times, the band found strength and support within their Post-Metal community. The album was recorded and produced by the band alongside their longtime collaborator and close friend Chiaran Verheyden (Hippotraktor) with help and advice from Psychonaut’s live engineer Victor,
who will no doubt make this album sound just as awesome on stage. Even the artwork for World Maker was a family affair, being designed by close friend Sam Coussens of Belgian cosmic sludge metallers Pothamus.
In the face of life’s soaring highs and desolate lows, World Maker is direct and brave without sacrificing any of Psychonaut’s raw power, creative innovation or inimitable musical depth. Where their previous full-length offerings have charted grand introspective courses through time and space, World
World Maker is breathtaking in its uncompromising clarity: a father singing to his newborn son as a son bids his own father farewell.
