This is bludgeoning music to say the least. PHOBOS quite possibly crush the majority of their contemporaries, leaving their few equals to observe the unholy monstrosity that comprises the sum of Tectonics' parts. In fact, while PHOBOS is a black metal band, I can only draw comparisons to early Scorn, Godflesh, and Skinny Puppy. This one man show obliterates past solo efforts like Judas Iscariot and ilk, making such mundane efforts about equal to dropping a pebble on a steel-toed boot. PHOBOS' album Tectonics picks up a mountain and drops it on you, then shovels you from the ground and pulverizes you with a slowly hammering sledge just for good measure. I read another reviewer comparing the album to the rise and fall of Rome, which is a well warranted metaphor indeed. The only other person in black metal today capable of matching wits with the brains behind PHOBOS would be Blut Aus Nord, though only for his album The Work Which Transforms God and follow-up EP Thematic Emanation of Archetypal Multiplicity. I abhor comparing the two, but the similarities are definitely there to a small degree. Being the exact opposite of fast, this dirge of an album presents the listener with an absolutely bitter epicedium, aurally devastating and sonically dissonant. The drum programming is nothing short of cataclysmic, blending with the huge fuzz of the guitar and bass perfectly. PHOBOS utilizes outside samples, as well as repressive foreign textures no doubt the result of smashing at the keyboard. This album contains no choruses, and no logical progression (which is not to say it lacks it, either) in any traditional sense. In this reviewer's mind, Tectonics is the product of a nihilist's meandering scourge... a musical beat-down by a truly disillusioned cynic. It's not extremely often that I discover an up-and-coming act like this and become fully awed by their presentation. In fact, this album is one of only three (the other two being Blut Aus Nord's Work Which Transforms God and Deathspell Omega's Si Monvmentvm Reqvires Circvmspice) such black metal albums I have discovered in the last two years to really cause this old dog's jaw to drop. Being as old as I am, I've seen unremarkable bands come and go and bid them good riddance, but PHOBOS is one act I hope to see continually develop his misanthropic brand of droning discord well into the bleak future.

- Aeric / aug. 2005 (9/10)

 

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