There’s no doubting Infected Mushroom’s credentials. Classically trained, they’ve been around since before light was invented and – alongside Hallucinogen/Shpongle – were one of the acts to define psytrance as a bonafide genre all of its own. They’ve built up a massive fanbase over the years, and these days they’re regulars to our shores. Their previous album, Converting Vegetarians, was a double that featured a trance disc and a second one that played around with the live sound that Infected Mushroom hadn’t explored in too much depth before.

Legend of the Black Shawarma is the seventh studio album for IM, and it marks another step in their sonic evolution, this time toward metal. Personally, I don’t think it works. The potential is there, and I was really hoping for something breathtaking. All the ingredients seemed to be in place – a top-notch, innovative production team, guests like Jonathan Davis from Korn and Perry Farrell of Jane’s Addiction, a solid idea for two obviously compatible sounds – so I crossed my fingers and prayed. I managed to stay excited for the first 40 seconds…

The production is better than ever, even if a touch sterile. It’s so slick it makes Deadmau5 sound like a ham-fisted beat butcher. Technically super-savvy and musically expert, every song here is full-bodied, densely layered and immaculately mastered harmonic psy-bliss. That’s the good part. The problem is that the sterility makes the production sound so clean everywhere. Of course this is fine for psy – and not even something new for Infected Mushroom – where the frantic energy of the rhythms can compensate. But it makes for metal that falls short of the mark. I like my metal full of fury, or at least heartfelt, but here you can actually hear these guys smiling as they sing. That’s not cool. It’s funny when it happens on Eurovision. Here it’s just sad.

The lyrics are also inane, at best. At their worst they’re conspicuously poor, and almost distractingly bad. Did he just say; “during the day I guess I’m okay?” I’m afraid so, grasshopper. So while the musical material itself fits together quite well – the guitar and synth parts are a great match, tonally – the result is an album that feels flat and fake. It’s still got all the energy you’ve come to expect from these elder statesmen of Goa, but I’m pretty sure they were holding hands and looking lovingly into each other’s eyes while they recorded it.

A lot of people will disagree with me about this, but I’m willing to stand my ground. This album nearly ruined psytrance for me. Thank god I can go back to Are You Shpongled? and cleanse myself with its un-self-conscious majesty. Thank god there are artists like Simon Posford out there writing real music. A bold move by Infected Mushroom, but unfortunately it’s one that misses the mark by quite some distance.