A new album from Phazed comes in with a relentless sucker punch to the gut in the form of a series of thrashing metal and alternative rock soundscapes with classic hip-hop style vocals and screams that all come together to give the band the air of a late 90s early 2000s radio metal feel and not only does it give me loads of nostalgia, but it's done so well that you just can't turn away.
The Move Right On (Deluxe Edition) album is absolutely brutal in the way of refs and guitar tone as you get some super inventive and creative bending and wailing rest along the classic drudgery and it's all so hard-hitting that it leaves its mark incredibly well.
The thing that I love most about this record is the sheer fact that they have these super catchy choruses that just bounce around in your brain for hours or even days after the songs have ended and it's blended into this super deepening hardcore metal sound that just starts pounding from minute one.
They're some surprises here that pop up when you least expect them and some inventive songwriting as well that definitely put some of these songs outside the box for the band's staple sound but, maybe that's part of the band's staple sound after all.
A lot is happening not only with guitar work but with vocals as well and a lot of it is right up in your face with an incredible energy that seems like all the players involved are just feeding off each other the entire time giving off the vibe of a live performance melting your face.
This I enjoy because to me, I think it's really difficult to capture that level of energy on a record, but these guys do it in such a particular way that it's tight but alive at the same time.
They blend so many subgenres of alternative rock, hip hop, metal, new metal, thrash, and so much more just all rolled up into this one massive record that I would have to say that you should be listening to this from beginning to end the whole way through.
This is by far and away the best way to soak the record in although there are several tracks that stand out to me as singles, I enjoyed the full album because then I was able to get the whole spectrum of what this record is about and the band's sound as well.
This record has character and persona attached to it with every single song and these tracks actually have a useful aggression to them and make sense when you listen to them, but they also have that almost fantastical ultra creativity attached so that you don't know what to expect next, but you know it's going to be blistering and awesome.
A lot of these songs come from someplace real and have a level of emotional drive to them that you find yourself getting attached to but then, I think that's again, the character that you get attached to.
That's saying a lot because bands come out all the time and put out pretty good records but there's no real character to them whereas with Phazed, it's just oozing with character.
This record made me want to go see these guys live just because if all of this was captured so well on recording then seeing them live would be intense.
This was a killer album release all the way through from beginning to end that anyone who grew up in the 90s and listens to hard music will absolutely, hands down, love.