Psychostick: The Flesh Eating Rollerskate Holiday Joyride

On their latest EP, the Christmas themed The Flesh Eating Rollerskate Holiday Joyride, Psychostick pokes fun at their genre of choice, the oft cliché riddled hardcore/metal scene. Clocking in at 18 minutes and 21 seconds, the disc makes a great stocking stuffer or gag gift for the metalhead with a sense of humor in your life. Benefiting from its brevity, Psychostick’s latest offering is long enough to deliver a lasting dose of the group’s manic brand of holiday humor-flavored metal, yet short enough that the joke doesn’t get old.

While some of the territory marked in yellow snow on the disc is typical, disgruntled holiday fare, the band is well aware of this irony. The EP’s standout track, “Red Snow”, features lead singer Rob “Rawrb” Kersey channeling a vocal tone eerily similar to Tool/A Perfect Circle’s Maynard to give voice to a certain despondent, outcast reindeer moved to murder those who, uh, “used to laugh and call him names”. Riffing on the disease of holiday consumerism and pegging Santa Claus as a “Jolly Old Sadist” who reneges on present promises, Psychostick isn’t the first to vent their seasonal frustrations. However, their keen sense of parody delivers catchy, original material with loud, chugging, melodic hardcore musicianship and some genuine laughs. You know you’re thinking it, these guys just have the tinsel-decked balls to growl it in song.