Philm - Time Burner (2021)

Coming 19th February 2020, PHILM are releasing their third album, and first one since 2014, "Time Burner". The follow-up to "Fire from the Evening Sun" finds the band stuck in two different modes: on one side, Proggy and Psychedelic Rock with a Post-Hardcore and Metal edge, and on the other side, jazzy, piano-led improvisations. This duality gives the record a broken structure, compromising the flow and making for an uneven yet mostly exciting experience.

Following that strange concept of mixing stuff that goes on disparate ways the album starts with a mostly Rockish tune and ends with a long, full-blown jazz instrumental. I'll admit I found myself more intrigued by the Jazz, and this trio has the chops to pull that off in a neat yet still raw way.

Overall, "Time Burner" feels like it wants to be two albums at the same time, and although eclecticism is always a welcome quality to any band, the fact that PHILM struggles to commit to either one side of their sound or simply taking a full-blown everything goes approach leaves it in a really weird place. If I had to choose, I’d take the Jazz route as they do not only have the chops for that, but the instrumentals here and even the Jazz-tingled sections on the more Rock/Metal tracks sounds promising and I’d be interesting in hearing how far they can take it. Either way, this is a solid effort even if it is one that feels transitional.