Phazm

Hate at First Seed

Osmose Productions

Score: 6/10; Black Metal / Rock & Roll

9 tracks; 42:44

Now here's a band with a shtick: trees taking over the world to the beat of Chicago Blues-laced Black Metal. Featuring members of Scarve, Phazm formed in France in 2003 and their style is self-described as "Black & Roll". They seem to have adopted numerous additional influences such as Sludge, Crust, Death, Doom and Grunge though.

Fusing different styles of music successfully is no easy feat. By successful, I mean effectively amalgamating contrasting styles into a holistic, cohesive sound, as opposed to skipping to and fro, playing one riff in one style and the next in another. The skippers try to be everything to everyone and this is usually an unsound strategy. It weakens their focus and force. So, although I'm a sucker for shtick, this record comes off to me to be a little scattered.

It's a little Motorhead-meets-Entombed here and a little Bathory-meets-Satyricon there. And sometimes it takes me back to the early 90s Grunge scene, with nods to bands like the Melvins, Tankhog and Tad. This outfit fairly often sounds just like God's Balls era Tad, actually, but with less mature guitar work, less vital vocals and less seasoned song writing. The songs, although generally quite listenable, tend to be too long - stretched out and overworked. Nevertheless, the musicianship is still more than satisfactory. There are some very cool guitar leads. And the vocals have a nice, smoky, gruff quality to them. The bass is heavy. And the drummer gives those skins a good thumping, especially on the floor tom, which gives the sound a primitive, tribal feel. Meanwhile, the production is slick, helping to give this record a thick and chunky presence.

Regan Perlett