Tectonics

I am constantly disappointed by the offerings of "Industrial" metal. Ignoring the fact that "Industrial" seems to mean more Nine Inch Nails than Throbbing Gristle nowadays, in metal it generally seems to be the excuse for using one shitty riff per song and dancey (at best) synthesizers. For the former, I'd like to blame Godflesh. As blasphemous as it may be, I think the group has done more wrong than good for metal. At best, their songs were slowly grinding, roiling masses of doom and despair and other icky things. But there you have Streetcleaner, and that's it. You start talking about Selfless, Pure, and the like, and you're getting in Fear Factory. Fear Factory is only one step away from Machine Head, as far as I'm concerned.

PHOBOS blows Streetcleaner out of the water. THIS is how industrial doom metal should sound. Slow, crushing riffs and clanging machine-like percussion. No, I don't mean "drum machine-like," I mean "giant angry war engine factory machine-like." It also strikes me as the first industrial metal I've heard that sounds genuinely angry. The riffs themselves sound angry! Oh, sure, Al had some spite for the Bush administration with his last three Ministry albums, but there was always a bit of laughing mockery attached. PHOBOS does not understand laughter. PHOBOS understands rage. Seething, festering, inevitably building rage. And if this isn't apparent by the time you're halfway through "Gregarious," perhaps you'll find Britney Spears more on your level of comprehension. Perhaps.

The music is not what I'd call complex. You've got your guitar, percussion, vocals, and sometimes keyboard layers. The keyboards are never intrusive, and never try to inject any melodic shit into the pieces; things move too slowly for that to ever work. They simply provide some harmonic layers here and there to further fill out this absolutely massive sound, alongside background samples that add more sounds to the atmosphere. The vocals? I don't know what the guy's going on about... sometimes I can make out a few words here and there (hey, there's the title of "Monochrome Red!"), but lyrics don't matter. All that does matter is that he sounds angry about something or another, and that it fits the otherwise inhuman quality of the rage of the music quite well. It's the percussion that makes this so special. Reverbed-up clangs and bangs abound, adding a unique sense of life into everything.

The album is certainly aptly titled, and the album art suites it equally well. Just as Ahab covers the nautical theme in everything, PHOBOS invokes the power of continental plates slowly moving and crushing each other, driven by the power of the planet's molten, seething core and mantle. Well, invoking it everywhere except maybe the lyrics. I can't tell. But again... it does not matter! He could be ranting about My Little Pony dolls for all I cared; it wouldn't stop the power of the music.

If there was one weakness to be found here, it would be the length of the album. That's right, I'm going to complain that a doom metal album that moves as fast as its eponymous tectonic plates is too long. This is also where I admit to being a severe pansy. If anything, it's all just a bit TOO much. Usually, by the time I get to "Inseminator/Matrix," I'm exhausted. The music is just so intense, powerful, and relentless that 40 minutes is enough to vent all my pent-up rage, and then I'm happy to go back to my happy-go-lucky thrash and death metal. It's certainly a tough listen to sit all the way through, but the power of Tectonics is undeniable. I find it very hard to justify marking off points from an album because it's too good at what it does.

This all being said, why isn't the metal community more aware of this project? This is the same metal community that turns absolute nobodies like Zarach 'Baal' Tharagh into minor celebrities (albeit for an entirely different reason), so why has PHOBOS gone so long without proper attention? Because this is a band every metalhead SHOULD hear. This is what every "Godflesh-inspired" band should look up to. So do yourself a favor and just get this damn album already. Unless you hate doom metal for some inconceivable reason, you should like this.