Sticking in the UK for today’s Band of the Day, we introduce to you a Manchester-based 5-piece – Phineas Gage. Billed as “progressive metal”, they tend towards the heavier end of that scale (but with a nice bit of melodic metal chucked in there for balance) and have recently released their first full album.
Founded in 2012, they released an EP (Pre-Emptive Strike) in 2014. This was followed on October 30th of this year by Locus which offers a full eight tracks of creative metallic loveliness. As regular reader will know, I personally balk at the term “progressive” and feel the urge to pass such bands on to other members of the team. I then invariable give it a quick listen and find myself surprisingly impressed. Phineas Gage are one of those bands that’s really impressed me.
Even on a first listen through, it’s obvious that Locus is quality. The “prog” side of things isn’t a massive part of their sound, but they’re a band who aren’t afraid to mix things up and chuck in sounds that you’d not initially expect to work together. Taken at face value, songs like “Hard To Find” wouldn’t ordinarily appeal to me but PG manage to sew it all up into a very appealing package.
Mildly growled vocals switch to clean and back; heavy guitars play melody while breaks in the song give the leads a chance to throw some atmospheric riffage around; the bass is clear and the drums really hold everything together. In this one song alone, you have head-thumping heaviness, traditional metal punch-the-air sections, a thrashy pit-inducer towards the end and a brief break where you could chill out on a bean bag and let the music wash over you.
In short, if this genre is your thing then Phineas Gage should definitely be on your “I need to check them out” list.
Phineas Gage: facebook | bandcamp | soundcloud | youtube
