Missed our live stream of PHILM's performance at TRI Studios? Watch videos of our favorite moments and the show in its entirety!
If you're looking for the standard demonic vocals and titanium-shredding guitars that made Slayer a metal mainstay, keep on walking. But if you're looking for a band with a unique sound to please both music snobs and life-long metal heads, LA-based PHILM delivers. Slayer drummer Dave Lombardo brought together bassist Pancho Tomaselli of War and singer/guitarist Gerry Nestler of Civil Defiance to form a genre-spanning power trio. The band integrates metal with elements of heavy 60s rock and modern psych topped off with endlessly impressive riffs and eye-gouging drums to create a sound Lombardo describes as "rhythmic emotion."
"The band's sound is channeled through the many different influences of drum and bass, expressionism, and underground, that ranges via ancient and indigenous to street," said Nestler. Given the background of each band member, their respective genres are equally represented in PHILM's sound. Most notably, (and perhaps to most people's surprise) the band includes down-tempo, proggy, deconstructed songs in their musical lexicon that are the polar opposite of the metal gymnastics Slayer has mastered. In fact, Lombardo cut his drum kit to just a basic four-piece like the late 60s drummers who influenced him. But the experimental nature of the band isn't at all attempting to suppress Lombardo's drumming skills. As said by Tomaselli, "It's like playing with the seven (not four) horses of the Apocalypse behind you." A high compliment indeed!
Is your curiosity piquing yet? PHILM is performing tonight at Bob Weir's TRI Studios in San Rafael, CA and Yahoo! Music will be streaming the show live! Be sure to tune in at 7pm PT/10pm ET May 16 to get an exclusive front row seat. But don't sit too close to the speakers, because PHILM's searing sonic barrage will surely melt your face off and leave you asking for more.
PHILM's debut album Harmonic is out now.
