PHASE V

I have come across some rave reviews of this album elsewhere, but I have to admit to considerable disappointment. It's not a bad album, you understand, it just has little that stands out enough to make it special. There is a lot of energy here, and it positively throbs with thundering, old-style heavy riffs on bass and drums that worm their way into the psyche. But but too often they are let down by a barrage of aimless guitar noodling in long free form instrumentals that cover a lot of territory without seeming to go anywhere. There's very little melody here, just tripped out heavy thrashes interspersed with gentler sequences, occasionally relinquishing rhythm for ambience.

When the overdriven guitars shut down for a while and the riffs and keys get a chance to breathe, the music gets suitably hypnotic, even on a heavy section like '61 74' which features some excellent organ chops. The band have a good control of tension, and the main fascination of a couple of tracks is working out the exotic time signature, but in general there is simply not enough variation to sustain the whole album. I like the rhythm section though - tight, punchy and masterful!

I am not familiar with any of the band's other albums, and to be honest, on this showing I am in no great hurry to rectify that. Perhaps I simply fail to understand what they are trying to achieve, especially regarding some sort of concept to do with numbers, but on the face of it this is music best appreciated in an altered mind-state. If you are looking for good, modern heavy space-rock then this is quite a good example, but there are others who do it much better [eg Hidria Spacefolk or First Band From Outer Space].