Phinehas
The Bridge Between
metalcore/acoustic
release date: January 21, 2013
1. Panhammer
2. Well If the Earths Are Stopped, Then the Fox Faces the Hounds
3. David And The Gate
4. A Pattern In Pain (Acoustic)
5. Endkindler
6. Crowns (Acoustic)
I am usually a little skeptical of metal bands that turn to doing acoustic releases. To me, it is a desperation sign to try to prove their musicianship. More often than not, I am usually bored with the outcome. Phinehas, however, has never heard of the word boring. It has been roughly a year and a half since we have heard anything new at all from them. In this day and age of music, that is almost unheard of, with bands pumping out new songs annually. And here we have "The Bridge Between EP" from the pioneers of mustache metal!
"The Bridge Between" opens with the same crushing attack that "The Godmachine" left us with, the same powerful screaming, harmonizing cleans, thunderous drums, and quitar work that sounds like Jason Combs has 15 fingers, with a few breakdowns sprinkled here and there. That is simply because the first three tracks are B-sides of "The Godmachine". Stereotypically B-sides are thought of as songs that did not make the cut, but with these three incredibly strong tracks I could not help but ask myself, "Why in the world were these not on The Godmachine"!? But that is fine with me, because they are now new to my ears. What I love about Phinehas is that they have their own style of belting clean vocals to go with their brand of metalcore, or may I say, mustache metal.
After "David and the Gate" is where I really became impressed. That whole skeptical thing with metal thing going acoustic thing, yea... well that was an immediate lost thought. Sean McCulloch was able to tweak his voice with adding a little range to mix with the acoustics to make such a beautiful arrangement. He did a superb job and really impressed me with how unforced he sounded, which is a downfall with a lot of bands that go acoustic.
"A Pattern In Pain" is one of their originals that they revised acoustically, along with "Crowns" and "The Wishing Well". And with all of these songs, they brought a raw emotion and passion that I have not heard in a long time. And with just under 3 minutes in, the 15 fingered man again takes his turn at his wonder and swoops you away to the end of the song. "Endkindler" is the only new material. It follows up nicely to the first acoustic track, flows perfectly, keeps the emotion living, and does not stick out and make it obvious that it is the only new track. Perhaps my favorite song and catchiest of the EP is "Crowns". It is so real, upbeat, yet, calm with emotion, and just flat out amazing. Since I have heard it, I have hummed "Kings of earth, bow down, and lose your crowns" endlessly. The EP ends out with "The Wishing Well". This song is the "softest" of the acoustics. It's flowered with piano which is a beautiful way to end out the EP.
I have not been able to get enough of these 7 songs. It is almost like they are teasing us until they release their new full length. Which seemingly, and clearly, I am eagerly anticipating. Phinehas fans have patiently waited for new music, and I know for sure this has satisfied their curiosity to what all the EP talk was about. And for the newcomers, and those who have not thoroughly been Phinehas followers, will enjoy this to, and hopefully grow an appreciation for their successful delve outside of metal.
5/5
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