By Andrew Bansal
To any regular visitor of this website, the name Dave Lombardo needs no introduction. Thrash metal has dominated the Los Angeles-based drummer’s life, but he has closed that chapter of his musical career and is now attempting to carve a new identity with complete commitment to Philm, a band he formed in early 2010 with two of his closest friends Gerry Nestler (guitar/vocals) and Pancho Tomaselli (bass). Philm started playing occasional shows in the LA area that year, did some small-scale touring in the US and internationally, and released their debut album ‘Harmonic’ in 2012, to a mixed response. Since then, they’ve had the next batch of material ready for release for a long time but were awaiting a record deal, and on September 16th, Philm’s second LP ‘Fire From The Evening Sun’ finally saw the light of day via UDR Music.
Even though many found ‘Harmonic’ to be an enjoyable set of tunes, its unabated rawness ensured that it would largely be appreciated only by people who were already fans of the band and had seen them live. While ‘Fire From The Evening Sun’ is by no means a completely polished effort, it’s been presented as a more palatable product. It certainly captures the tremendous on-stage energy the band is reputed for, but also treats the listener with musical moments that need not be replicated live and can be enjoyed as album-only items, thus establishing Philm as a recording artist far better than ‘Harmonic’ did.
Lombardo, Nestler and Tomaselli have clearly brought the best out of each other on the twelve tunes comprising this effort, and their rock-solid union has become even stronger from a musical standpoint. The album begins on a very lively note with ‘Train’ and the title track ‘Fire From The Evening Sun’, then delves deeper into the trio’s creativity on ‘Lady Of The Lake’ which is atmospheric and aggressive in equal measure, after which comes ‘Lion’s Pit’, arguably the best track on the 51-minute album as it boasts of some beautifully ominous guitar melodies with the vocals, bass and drums craftily revolving around them. Things gets progressively from here with ‘Silver Queen’, ‘We Sail At Down’, ‘Omniscience’, and reaching its culmination point on ‘Fanboy’, the thrashiest tune Philm have recorded thus far, right up the alley for fans of Lombardo’s previous band. The album winds back down with ‘Luxhaven’ and ‘Turn In The Sky’ although there’s one final burst of speed on ‘Blue Dragon’. ‘Fire From The Evening Sun’ concludes with the pleasantly weird and jazzy ‘Corner Girl’, a very out-of-left-field manner of ending it.
The production is just about ideal for maintaining the raw element of the previous album and at the same time raising the quality of the sound to result in a better representation of the band Philm. Nestler’s guitar sound as well as vocals really do hit the sweet spot this time, Tomaselli’s bass is fuzzy in the right amount, and Lombardo continues to reach greater heights as a musician, constantly outdoing himself by putting forth fills and patterns he’s never incorporated before. Philm have already been performing some of this material in live shows during the past year or so, and now with the official launch and further influx of this new album into the live set, they look poised to become an even more compelling act on stage.
In all fairness, even though Philm is somewhat of an acquired taste and isn’t really the kind of band Lombardo’s longtime fans can simply get on the bandwagon for, there are plenty of moments on ‘Fire From The Evening Sun’ that would undoubtedly appeal to thrash fans a lot more than anything on ‘Harmonic’. But with that said, the best thing about this new album is the fact that it still retains the group’s versatility which makes it impossible for the listener to box them into any specific genre or style. ‘Fire From The Evening Sun’ signals a new era in Philm and Lombardo’s career, and based on the strength of this material it definitely makes for a potentially successful start.
Rating: 9.5/10
Record Label: UDR Music
Release Dates:
September 12th 2014 (Germany)
September 15th 2014 (UK)
September 16th 2014 (US)
Track Listing:
01. Train
02. Fire From the Evening Sun
03. Lady Of The Lake
04. Lion’s Pit
05. Silver Queen
06. We Sail At Dawn
07. Omniscience
08. Fanboy
09. Luxhaven
10. Blue Dragon
11. Turn In The Sky
12. Corner Girl
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