By Scott McLennan

On Bring on the Psychics, the post-hardcore veterans sound urgent, thoughtful, and surprisingly rejuvenated, balancing punishing riffs with hard-won wisdom.

Bring on the Psychics, Quicksand

The cover art for Quicksand’s Bring on the Psychics.

More than 35 years have passed since Quicksand formed, a time when twentysomething “veterans” of taste-making hardcore bands came together to help shape what came to be known as post hardcore – a sound that mixed nuance and craft into the music’s roots of agitation and aggression. The band has not worked consistently over this timespan, but when it does go on tour or make an album, it’s inevitably worthy of serious attention.

That demand holds, as guitarist Walter Schreifels, bass player Sergio Vega, and drummer Alan Cage are back with Bring on the Psychics, Quicksand’s fifth album and first in five years, offering yet another turn of the hardcore (post-post-hardcore?) wheel.

Bring on the Psychics is remarkable as an act of synthesis: it brings together the frenetic intensity of the mid-’90s Quicksand classics Slip and Manic Compression without forsaking the more experimental turf staked out on 2017’s Interiors and 2021’s Distant Populations, which the latter arriving after periods of hiatus.

This is a whirlwind album that deploys 10 songs in under 30 minutes — there are no wasted seconds. The music bristles with the urgency of the band’s message, a demand that listeners take charge of their lives that has an immediacy that is more than aspirational. The feels as if Quicksand is living out Bob Dylan’s declaration, “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now.”

There is nothing subtle to the album’s opener “Get to It.” Schreifels’ guitar is a buzz saw, cutting through all the flimsy, manufactured excuses people use to explain their own unhappiness. The prodding here, though, sounds more like it is meant to inspire — not to criticize.

The lambasting, however, comes later in the album, with the heavy crunch of “Cool Guy,” which takes a shot at that big-talking self-server who is hard to avoid (the song has a nice punchline too we won’t spoil here).

Quicksand: (l to r) Sergio Vega, Walter Schreifels and Alan Cage. Photo: Annette Rodriguez

On “Regenerate,” Quicksand turns the heavy groove inward, offering a reflection on how relationships change over time. The song’s bridge slows the pace and the tune turns spacier, before the energy surges back to an amped-up chant of “Balance Pride Humility” that hangs as either a list of qualities to reach for, or a call to balance hubris and modesty – your call.

“Crystallize,” “In Full Color,” and “Supercollider” sound like vintage Quicksand, full of coiled tensions and abstract images that fire off snapshots of the chaotic energy that swirls in and around the everyday.

“Days You Run To” is the album’s high point. At five-and-a-half minutes, this song is roughly twice the length of everything else on the record. It reflects how the past can exert a sedating power, pointing to how illusory memories can be as you forge ahead in your life. That the song echoes the style of Pink Floyd isn’t all that surprising — if you heard Schreifels’s cover of “Pigs on the Wing” that he contributed to The Dogs of Hope animal shelter benefit album from last year.

The album ends with “Moving Forward,” an optimistic battle cry for punks of any age, and “Bring on the Psychics,” a moodier piece that also suggests movement, though in this case it sounds like someone is trying to flee from harm.

In under a half hour, Quicksand dispenses wisdom, cheerleads for life-fulfilling success, bashes empty suits, and makes room for empathy. Punk rock and the people making it are aging way better than anyone could have ever predicted.

Quicksand and fellow punk-rock lifers Bane are touring together and will be at Royale in Boston on Sept. 3.

Scott McLennan covered music for the Worcester Telegram & Gazette from 1993 to 2008. He then contributed music reviews and features to The Boston Globe, Providence Journal, Portland Press Herald, and WGBH, as well as to The Arts Fuse. He also operated the NE Metal blog to provide in-depth coverage of the region’s heavy metal scene.