"For all the side-project shorthand that still follows Maynard James Keenan around, Puscifer has grown into its own strange, fully formed organism. Keenan sat down with Kyle Meredith to talk about Normal Isn't, the fifth Puscifer record and one of our Most Anticipated Heavy Albums of 2026. The album leans hard into the mess of modern life - politics, technology, and the ways we mentally navigate all of it - while still leaving room for humor, character-building, and a little theatrical sleight of hand."
""There's been a few incidents where I'll post a song or a video and somebody goes, 'Oh my god, I love this new material,'" Keenan says, before laughing at the lag. "That's actually from 15 years ago... people are finally finding it." It's not reinvention so much as accumulation - years of records that weren't built for algorithms now getting rediscovered in bulk. Compared to the more cinematic sprawl of albums before 2020's Existential Reckoning, Keenan describes Normal Isn't as having more teeth."
Puscifer's fifth record, Normal Isn't, engages the chaos of modern life—politics, technology, and mental navigation—while retaining humor, character-building, and theatrical sleight of hand. Years of earlier material are being rediscovered, turning accumulation rather than reinvention into the project's momentum. The album features sharper, more biting songs and a palpable frustration tuned to current events. The project adopts a reporting instinct expressed through a feral, sideways approach, described as interpretive breakdancing poetry. Tracks like "ImpetuoUs" embrace an underdog mentality that validates nonconformity, urging listeners who feel isolated to lean into that identity. Visuals and mythology expand via the character Belindina Black.
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