VOLA – Friend of a Phantom
Release Date: 1st November 2024
Label: Mascot Records
Bandcamp
Genre: Experimental Progressive Metal
FFO: In Flames, Leprous, Rendezvous Point, Ions.
Review By: Eric Wilt
If you’ve read many of my reviews, you know that genre plays a big role in my experience with an album. As for Vola, whose new album Friend of a Phantom is set to come out 1 November 2024, I read over and over that they were progressive metal. When I listened to their last album, Witness, I was a bit disappointed that their brand of progressive metal was not what I was expecting, namely something along the line of Haken, Dream Theater, etc. Since I received my copy of Friend of a Phantom, I’ve listened to it many times with no preconceived notion of what they should sound like, and my life has honestly been changed. The album is that good.
While Vola can be considered progressive in that they bring numerous influences to their music and often push themselves beyond the boundaries of what typical metal is, they are not progressive like Haken or Dream Theater. To begin with, the songs are full of emotion, conveyed both through the music and the lyrics. Compositionally, Vola paints their songs with as wide a palette as possible. Combining crushing djent with electronica, alt-metal with lush, layered synths and rounding out the experience with beautifully sung lyrics that are challenging and poignant.
Friend of a Phantom begs to be listened to from start to finish, as the songs navigate a plethora of moods and emotions as the music flows from loud and heavy to calm and subdued and everywhere in between. Anders Friden of In Flames even makes a guest appearance on the first track, Cannibal, adding a more aggressive layer to the overall impact of the album.
Friend of a Phantom is the kind of album that gets better with each listen and deserves to be near the top of many AotY lists. And as for genre, I will eschew the typical descriptors and simply call it Art because to identify it as merely progressive metal is to do the album a great disservice.
(5 / 5)
