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In the early days
of 2005, Augury was one of the most active bands in the
Arabian metal scene in general. After releasing their demo "Temptation
of Oath" and the great reviews that the demo got worldwide and
response of the local scene, the band just kept giving a great
action on the scene.
Muhannad Bursheh
a.k.a Phexataan (Augury's Bassist) felt that he got a
lot more to give, to share the world with and to compose. Therefore,
he started to work on a full album for his one-man project Phex.
Back in 2001. the project started as a industrial music project
which turned quickly into a extreme/death metal project. With his
official first album "Transfixion" which followed a couple of
demos, Phex became a remark in the Jordanian metal scene.
The album that has been released in June 2005 contains a lot
of powerful riffs and melodies, which make it hard to give it a
specific genre. It is obvious that the album is a result of a years
of listening to different genres of metal music and also years of
composing metal music himself. Transfixion is a good
choice for those who are looking for mixed genres music that take
the best of each one.
The album contain 10 tracks with a run time can be measured by 45
min. Phexataan has composed the entire album. The drums part
were a bit difficult for the album since Phexataan didn’t
find a drummer in Jordan who can play as fast, extreme and
aggression as he looks for. Therefore, he programmed the drums with
Mohammad al Masri (a.k.a Sirenwave).
The concept of the album is very joyful. You can hardly notice that
Spirits and Devils ended and you are actually listening to
Llama's Odyssey because of the amazing flow of the songs. Both
first two songs at least could be described as HITS. The electronic
effects at the beginning of Spirits and Devils came from the
early influence of Phex's first demo "Experiment 00-01".
On the third track
"Black Vision", the music became slower. Still, not a doomy
one. The vocals of Phexataan are very impressive. After this
"so called" slow track, time for nice headbanging came back with
PHEX: A short instrumental track which is amazingly headbangable
(if there is such a thing called so!)
With The Timeless Maze, the album back to his fast and
extreme nature. As a bassist, Phexataan refused but to give
his touch on this track. The arrangement of this song, the shifts
between bass and guitars and the extremely short breaks gave you a
brand new start to complete this musical pleasance.
Blood and Thorns
starts in a very different way, which gets you smashed by the heavy
riff. One of the most things I adore in this record is that you can
hear, feel and -the most important- enjoy the riffs.
Another 25 sec. intro takes you to The Insect War, another
great instrumental track. The drums composition is very impressive
–for me at least-. Moreover, it gives you what it needs for the next
track "Watching Your Death".
Watching Your Death
is a 9:20 min. track, which could be a long duration for an extreme
metal song. Discarding that, the epic song has the elements of a
success epic song: changing in riffs and tempo, clean part and -the
base of any song- great music. The lake of solos in this album came
from the fact that Phexataan is not a lead guitarist. Still,
Watching your Death Deserve not one solo but three!
Therefore, Sirenwave and Zaher Siryani (Tyrant
Throne) stepped up to help their old-time friend and their band
mate (Phexataan plays Bass in Tyrant Throne also). A
Great song indeed.
