Artist: Phi
Label: MALS Ltd.
Release: 2011
Runtime: 49:12
Rating: 3.4/5
Modern music definitely doesn’t bring only bad news. Sure, the popular scene is flooded with cheap music, but maybe that’s exactly why quality bands have a better shot, once they step onto that very same scene, at showing what good music really sounds like, and so it’s easier for them to become part of music history than it was, perhaps, for bands of earlier decades.
But that’s a purely marketing-minded way of looking at the whole thing. The important »novelty« this lost new era brings is more room to maneuver for bands. Yes, supposedly everything has already been created and recycled a million times over, but a heap of new genres and advances in recording technology give a band more room to experiment. They also give them space to blend all sorts of genres into something unique.
Austria’s Phi follow one such legacy. They take the mentality of ’70s progressive rock and reinterpret it through more modern, louder genres, like metal. In their home country, where they’re pretty well known, they’ve been labeled the Austrian Porcupine Tree. And a comparison like that is definitely not the product of some fame-hungry Austrian music tabloid.
The Austrian band formed back in 2006, so they had plenty of time to build up name recognition before releasing their debut. In 2009 the band partly fell apart, but after a break they came back with a relatively new lineup and a new musical philosophy, took on more serious projects, and two years later delivered the first of them – the debut album For The Love Of Ghosts.
On first listen, the not-so-attentive kind, Phi might sound like just one more progressive metal band. But reality is far from that. Sure, the band clings to standard musical forms, like extended guitar solos, but those are nowhere near classic guitar solos. Above all, they’re worked into the music in a way that makes them part of it, instead of being thrown out there the way guitarists love to do. Basically, the whole thing fuses together in a truly organic and natural way, and that’s the band’s real forté. Intense atmosphere-building and surprising transitions, the tone of the electric guitar and an unusual drumming technique, the band combines it all into an innovative musical form that actually feels fresh, even though the scene is flooded with similar bands.
But it’s not all roses. Phi are, sadly, musicians first and by no means songwriters. The lyrics are mostly clichéd, loaded with the most worn-out adjectives and nouns imaginable. There are bright spots where the band actually has the guts to say something loud and clear in the way of social criticism, but there are too few of those moments. It comes through even more because the singer’s vocals somehow don’t fit their music. If the instruments were a perfect fit before, there’s no room here for this kind of vocal. Bratusa does occasionally find the right style, the right atom for a complete fusion with the instrumental, as he manages on »The Surgical Cut, Part 1, which is also the best song on the album – and also the one that most reminds you of Porcupine Tree.
With their debut, Phi have definitely earned some attention, at least in their native Austria if not further afield. Despite a certain derivativeness, they keep a distinct voice of their own next to Wilson’s band, and they pull it off with confidence and technical polish. The fusion of instruments is very raw and primal throughout the whole album, and it seems to come to the musicians completely naturally – which is exactly why it may be worth rethinking the role of vocals in their music. Bratusa’s voice works best buried under a ton of effects, when it almost becomes an instrument rather than a carrier of lyrical messages. For The Love Of Ghosts is therefore definitely a strong debut with a lot of potential – the right stuff is already there, and there’s room for improvement, plenty of it, enough to lift the band to the next level.
Lineup
Markus Bratusa – guitars, vocals, additional keyboards
Arthur Darnhofer-Demar – bass guitar, backing vocals
Nick Koch – drums
Guest musicians:
Christoph W. Pirker – keyboards
Markus Czwiertnia – violin
Peter Yearsley and Librivox – spoken word
Production
Phi
Tracklist
1. The Surgical Cut, Parts 2-4 (9:51)
2. Departure (4:41)
3. DesIre (12:08)
4. Wintersong (5:23)
5. The Illusion (Death Is Dead) (6:19)
6. The Surgical Cut, Part 1 (9:04)
7. Epilogue: For The Love Of Ghosts (1:46)
