_Psychotic_ runs for almost twenty minutes from its gradual and cleverly built up intro "Dreaming" to its outro "Awakening" that has some fairly impressive lead guitar work. "Rabhead" and "I'm Unreal" don't really stray from each other. Despite having a couple of engaging guitar solos under their belts, the average riffing and predictable transitions tend to dim their flashy air.

The title track "Psychotic" is a rather double edged piece. On one hand you have a prominent melodic death influence and a pretty energetic chorus, but on the other hand, the resemblance between its verse riff and the main riff from Metallica's "Of Wolf and Man" is just striking. The melodic riff and galloping drum beat on "Critical Mind" fit perfectly together, but I honestly think the double bass triplet pattern didn't fit well with the 16th note riff being played behind the guitar solo.

So this EP doesn't raise any eyebrows, but it also isn't a one-listen-only release. Amorphead do have some good characteristics and some others that still need some work. The production quality will need more than a push in the future to provide a more solid release regardless of its compositional outcome. On the other hand, if they can't find their own definitive sound in the near future, I'm afraid they could get quickly stuck in this rush hour traffic of middle class European death metal bands that are flooding the international scene.