Psychometric Testing By…, the new album from Casual Nun, marks the first release of the year from Box Records, and ahead of its release early next month, you can stream ‘Stripes’, taken from it, above.
The track is an eight-minute doom-inflected stomper, punctuated by guitar squalls and Vasili Sakkos’ curious, submerged vocals. The album, meanwhile, sees the band embracing a more improvisational approach to their writing and recording process, with the entire recording having come from one session at Bear Bites Horse, the studio of Shitwife’s Wayne Adams – the same session that also led to their debut album, Super Fancy Skeleton.
The album works around the idea of psychometrics, which a message accompanying the album’s announcement sums up thusly, with reference to their improvisational processes in working on this album: "Psychometrics are used to gauge and influence in a world where information digestion has moved increasingly towards social messaging. The ability of organisations and entities to use psychometric data to build a psychological profile of a person is an alarming manipulation of our personalities, aptitudes and desires."
The band will follow the album’s release with shows at Raw Power, Roadburn and other festivals, with the album due out on March 10.