Psychonaut – World Maker (Review)

Psychonaut are a Belgian post-metal band and this is their third album.

I first encountered Psychonaut on their 2021 split with Sâver, and I really liked what I heard. So, when Violate Consensus Reality came around a year later, I was hooked. With this firmly in mind, it’s with great anticipation that the 54 minutes of new material on World Maker is received.

World Maker is an album of depth and feeling. An easy thing to say, but the record does a sterling job in exploring the far emotive reaches of Psychonaut’s sound. From delicate intimacy to roaring catharsis, World Maker takes the listener on a personal journey into shades of light and dark, spending enough time in both to saturate the listener in rays of ethereal love and drown them in the abyss of raw emotional pain. It’s a record of scope, of timeless appeal and textured delivery.

Compared to its predecessor it’s less complex, driven by raw emotion to a greater degree, and is filled with very earthy, organic songwriting and delivery. There’s less deliberate heaviness, and more of a focus on allowing the song to roam wherever it needs to to accomplish its goals. Psychonaut’s expressive repertoire has been expanded, and World Maker features their most diverse set of ingredients yet. The end result is incredibly tasty and satiating.

Ultimately, it’s also an album that’s very enjoyable and satisfying to listen to. It offers an immersive experience. Largely forgoing the directness of instant appeal hooks, it instead opts for a slower burning approach that suits the heart of the music better. World Maker is a grower. It spends its time building soundscapes of absorbing colour, a tapestry of sound for the listener to get lost in. It’s music that demands attention, demands time be spent with it, soaking up its feeling-rich atmospheres.

Fear not though – in case I’ve made it sound like World Maker is a softly spoken odyssey of introverted introspection, it’s not. It is softly spoken in places, and it’s also delicate, and fragile, and heartfelt. But in other places, its heavy, with dynamic riffs, harsh vocals, and labyrinthine progressive intensity. Between these extremes lie a range of different styles, feelings, ideas, and moods.

A album of post-metal resplendence, post-rock beauty, and progressive layers, World Maker is an essential listen for any fan of contemporary heavy music that has scope and breadth of appeal.

Do not miss out on this.