Review: Psychonaut – World Maker

Style: Post-metal progressive metal, psychedelic metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Mastodon, Tool, The Ocean, Dvne
Country: Belgium
Release date: 24 October 2025

Another day, another review where I get to cover a Subway favourite. Belgian progressive post-metal act Psychonaut had our attention with their 2018 debut Unfold the God Man, and blew us away with Violate Consensus Reality which took third place in our Top Albums of 2022. I’m trying not to basically just rewrite my intro to An Abstract Illusion, but Psychonaut occupy a very similar position at the blog: a young band with two records to their name releasing a hotly anticipated third album that has to contend with its nigh flawless predecessor. What can the intrepid trio summon for album number three? 

Continuing to evolve their style, World Maker marries the brighter, psychedelic flourishes that tinted Violate Consensus Reality with an extension of the Tool-inspired rhythmic base that was utilised more on their debut. The extended use of hammer-on/pull-off runs, sparingly present on previous albums, becomes a real focal point here, seemingly an evolution of Adam Jones’ (Tool) technique into a house style. Meanwhile, touches of 70s psychedelia often colour the compositions, such as the use of tabla (“Origin”, “Stargazer”), synths (“World Maker”), and ambient as set dressing (“All is Quiet”), while the distortion levels are kept to a minimum until the heaviest sojourns—even then they venture little further than Jimmy Page’s amps ever did. World Maker, then, is a subtler work, mature and nuanced reflecting its focus on themes of both grief and hope, but retaining the chanting cleans, vitriolic harshes and explosive riffing that fans have come to love. 

A major standout is the guitar work, which has become a Psychonaut signature: those aforementioned hammer-on/pull-off runs inflect most of the tracks, with and without the interplay of palm-muting, while the whammy bar is positively abused in the many solo sections. Indeed, when I think of Psychonaut, I don’t necessarily think of a band who centre a ton of lead guitar in their work, but World Maker is positively brimming with impressive solos and lead licks, some of which are straight shots of 70s Led Zep melo-shred, others of which more recall the judicious clean plucking of David Gilmour. Instrumental halfway mark, “Origins” is the best illustration of this, with around six minutes of continuously evolving lead guitar work, occupying a sonic border territory between life and death. 

The other main facet is the increased psychedelia of World Maker. The title track opens proceedings with a simple keyboard motif which remains the rhythmic focus throughout, a pulsating beat all the percussion that’s needed. Meanwhile, more than a few tracks feature substantial levels of ambience over which clean guitars noodle around; on “All is Quiet”, this interplay nods to “Shine On You Crazy Diamond”, while on “… Everything Else is Just the Weather” this interlude bridges the gap between it and partner track “You Are the Sky…”. But what Psychonaut always bring are the grooves, and World Maker is no exception. “You Are the Sky…” has a rip-roaring pace that recalls “A Storm Approaching” from Violate Consensus Reality, with a grandiose post-metal interlude where the strings threaten to pop out of their bends, and some crushing grooves in the latter half. “And You Came With Searing Light” features involved riffs combining complex runs with strange natural harmonics, and some of the album’s best bass work. Throughout the album, these three key features are deftly interwoven into a tapestry of mortality.

Forged in the crucible where grief and hope meet, World Maker was written in a time of immense pain and also one of hope; both Stefan de Graef (vocals, guitars) and Thomas Michiel (vocals, bass) lost their fathers to serious cancers. Around the same time, de Graef welcomed a son into the world. Naturally then, the lyrics focus on fathers and sons, death and birth—with a typically Psychonaut spiritual bent. On “And You Came With Searing Light”, the band frame the son as a saviour, a being of pure potential: ‘Be the ocean’s island, fly, realign the sun.’ When de Graef screams ‘you’re all we have left now’, he threads the needle between losing a father and becoming one, the mortal realisation that the torch has been handed over. All is not lost, however, as on the unexpectedly jubilant “Stargazer” the band depict death as an opportunity to ‘tear your cage open; redesign’, to soar ‘into the sunwheel weaving worlds unknown, into divine light’—it’s a cathartic message, an unburdening of what was lost as well as a release from the prison of grief. Unusually, instrumental track “Origins” is perhaps the most emotionally turbid track, feeling like the confluence, the plane upon which souls meet, where we come from and where we go as the instrumental bed beneath de Graef’s soloing builds to a flood of emotion. There’s a zenness to World Maker; for a record forged in grief and hope, Psychonaut sound more defiant than ever. 

It took time for World Maker to grow on me. Lacking the outright grandiosity of its predecessor and jettisoning a certain amount of heaviness, Psychonaut’s third album is a subtler affair, less likely to wow on first listen, but able to wend its way into your heart if given a chance for its understandable pathos to be truly felt. It might not be my favourite release from the Belgian trio, but it’s proof, were such a thing still needed, that Psychonaut remain one of the bright spots in the modern progressive metal scene. And how they shine. 

Recommended tracks: You Are the Sky…, Stargazer, Origins
You may also like: Hippotraktor, Sikasa, Lucid Planet
Final verdict: 8/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Pelagic Records

Psychonaut is:
– Stefan de Graef – guitars/vocals
– Thomas Michiels – bass/vocals
– Harm Peters – drums