Man, Candlelight has really been expanding their horizons lately, I mean I thought it was pretty interesting when Crowbar joined their ranks but since they joined forces with Appease Me Records they've been spacing out big time with Overmars and now P.H.O.B.O.S. "Tectonics" is a trip straight through hell similar to label-mates Overmars and also bands like Halo, Godflesh, Turning of the Gears and other masters of the whole dirge-y, droning noise/doom sound. As far as the liner notes are me this disc is the project of one man which is hard to believe with the sheer wall of sound that these 8 songs bring forth. I think I'd call this stuff industrial doom, it's got the mechanical yet riff heavy power of certain Godflesh albums, the oppressive and nightmarish noise blasts of Halo or Turning of the Gears along with some subtle doom influences that would make them a favourite of the Southern Lord crowd. Dark soundscapes collide head on with bleak, downer driven riffs, machine-like percussion, bursts of noise ranging from ambient to obliterating and raging, black metal tinged throat abuse that all combines into a sound like none other. I'm even catching the slightly Cavity sounding riff on occasion as well. "Nihil Credo" and certain parts of "Monochrome Red" have those desert baked guitar tones behind all of the painful distortion that are oddly similar to some of the ultra-slow riffs on Cavity's "Supercollider" and I think it's downright awesome that I'm hearing those guitar tones in here. Everything about this album is top-notch including the noisy, raw production job that makes these tunes sound twice as mean. If you like your sludge/doom with a heavy coating of industrial strength grime, this is a must buy. Mix bits and pieces of Halo, Godflesh, Cavity, Overmars and Turning of the Gears and you'll have an idea of what you're getting into but this is really unique and powerful stuff on its own right and definitely has an original sound going. Highly recommended but most certainly not for the weak!
- JS / aug. 2005 (7/7)