PHIDEAUX
Doomsday Afternoon

Phidaux has travelled a bit of way since the debut Fiendish, and in the search for new musical challenges, he/they have fortunately been able to maintain the high quality of both songwriting and performance which have distinguished all their previous albums.

Doomsday Afternoon is a concept album which is a gloomy vision of the future in two acts (the subtitle is “an eco terror tale”). The album is not immediately easily accessible, even if it at first hearing may sound a bit “simple”. But appearances are deceptive! The music has many layers and great depths, it takes some time before it “sticks”, but then it sticks like super glue.

Musically, it is not too far from his last few albums, melodic prog without the 70’s millstone around its neck. Not that we don’t find references to the progressive rock of bygone days (the booklet includes a drawing showing a blind man on a train station platform with a sign carrying the text: “666 is no longer alone”), but the record as such is completely liberated from defined time periods, it exists here and now. Phideaux Xavier is definitely one of the most exciting songwriters we have these days, and he has alongside him a collection of first-class musicians. Outside of his more or less permanent band, we find a long list of guests which includes, among others, Matthew Parmenter (discipline) and Martin Orford (IQ), both of whom should be really proud to participate in this project.

In addition to the music being intelligently written, it is wonderfully arranged for a large selection of instruments, something that gives great sonic variations, and secures that it never gets uninteresting. It is no point in mentioning individual tracks – as a genuine concept album, it should be listened to as one piece of music,

I must admit that I never quite got the grip of Phieaux’ last album, The Great Leap, but Doomsday Afternoon has hardly been out of my player since arriving at the house, and seldom has a 67 minute CD felt so short! If I really should have to ppoint my finger at something, it would have to be that the production suffers somewhat from the “louder is better”-syndrome – i.e. it could have been richer on dynamics – the ears do need a bit of rest now and then. But nevertheless, a warmly recommended album.

PHIDEAUX
Doomsday Afternoon

Phidaux has travelled a bit of way since the debut Fiendish, and in the search for new musical challenges, he/they have fortunately been able to maintain the high quality of both songwriting and performance which have distinguished all their previous albums.

Doomsday Afternoon is a concept album which is a gloomy vision of the future in two acts (the subtitle is “an eco terror tale”). The album is not immediately easily accessible, even if it at first hearing may sound a bit “simple”. But appearances are deceptive! The music has many layers and great depths, it takes some time before it “sticks”, but then it sticks like super glue.

Musically, it is not too far from his last few albums, melodic prog without the 70’s millstone around its neck. Not that we don’t find references to the progressive rock of bygone days (the booklet includes a drawing showing a blind man on a train station platform with a sign carrying the text: “666 is no longer alone”), but the record as such is completely liberated from defined time periods, it exists here and now. Phideaux Xavier is definitely one of the most exciting songwriters we have these days, and he has alongside him a collection of first-class musicians. Outside of his more or less permanent band, we find a long list of guests which includes, among others, Matthew Parmenter (discipline) and Martin Orford (IQ), both of whom should be really proud to participate in this project.

In addition to the music being intelligently written, it is wonderfully arranged for a large selection of instruments, something that gives great sonic variations, and secures that it never gets uninteresting. It is no point in mentioning individual tracks – as a genuine concept album, it should be listened to as one piece of music,

I must admit that I never quite got the grip of Phieaux’ last album, The Great Leap, but Doomsday Afternoon has hardly been out of my player since arriving at the house, and seldom has a 67 minute CD felt so short! If I really should have to ppoint my finger at something, it would have to be that the production suffers somewhat from the “louder is better”-syndrome – i.e. it could have been richer on dynamics – the ears do need a bit of rest now and then. But nevertheless, a warmly recommended album.