THE ALBUMS
Coming Soon!
Neurogenesis
Between Two Worlds
Phaeton's 2023 sophomore release "Between Two Worlds" takes the instrumental trademarks established with the first album and drives everything higher into the aural ionosphere. The silence shatters with jazz-cascade drums that introduce "Predestination," and the band is off on yet another formidable onslaught. "Oceans of Time" keeps the rollercoaster twisting and diving, and "Terra Australis" takes the listener into distant lands of mood and emotion, a journey both harrowing and exhilarating. "Monsoon" is a storm of a song, riff after riff mercilessly crashing ashore, and even in the eye of the hurricane there's intricate melodicism and thoughtful arrangement. "Refraction" explores the gentler melodic side of Phaeton, at least for the first few moments, and then they're off again on compound meter and palm-muted distortorama, which is all for the better. "Geomorphic" once again starts deceivingly mellow and then it's Ultra-Riff Time and we're tumbling off the prog-metal cliff. "Magma Chamber" hits the dazzle switch and all the cosmic gloves are off with this one. And to close the album there's the title track "Between Two Worlds," a ten-minute tour-de-force which seems only ten seconds long. A tough, muscular improvement on the already-inimitable model.
Phaeton
Phaeton's self-titled 2018 debut album establishes the band's unique musical strengths right from the get-go. The spooky orchestral intro of "Siege Engine" kicks into a ricocheting emotional plummet that flings you into the sky like an emotional trebuchet. "Voyage Eternal" sends Anubis sailing across the Styx with ghostly harmonics, lyrical fretless bass, and once again the mournful majesty takes over. "March of the Synthetics" has the punchy flash of Daniel Airth's particular rifferama-mindset written over all seven minutes of it, where the song takes sudden U-turns and leaves the listener breathless, waiting for the automatons to kick open the bunker's hatch. "Phantasm" marks yet another daring angle from the band, where the grey boundaries between prog-rock and jazz-fusion blur into meaninglessness, marked by a poignant piano solo from Argentinian virtuoso Gabriel Palatchi. And the album concludes with the rolling groovy crunch of "Vortex." From here on in, nothing from Phaeton should surprise the listener, but sonic surprises are yet to come.
