Few contemporary progressive metal acts blend influences quite as seamlessly as Swedish-Danish quartet Vola. On Friend Of A Phantom they turn on the switch marked ‘metal’ to activate pummelling kick drums, beef up their riffs to cavern-filling size, and summon the essence of Satan’s own belch.
The follow-up to 2021’s Witness features additional textures – for example, in the shape of guest vocals from Anders Fridén of Scandi metal outfit In Flames, who appears on opening track Cannibal.
Yet they retain an ethereal, stargazing quality even in songs like this, as Asger Mygind’s choirboy-ish tenor still delivers the top-line melody – even if it’s shadowed and sometimes answered back to by a corrosive, demonic presence.
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Similarly unlikely aesthetic balancing acts are in evidence elsewhere. The skittering electronica skating around Break My Lying Tongue could be The Prodigy on a potent bender, albeit fronted by a loved-up dreamer and accompanied by a drummer attempting a land speed record with a shuffling non-linear beat. On paper, it reads like an utter mess; but in practice it’s exhilarating.
Turned up loud, We Will Not Disband is an almost overwhelming experience
We Will Not Disband has a huge, widescreen sound, imbued with a sweeping symphonic metal quality to it – and instead of an operatic diva upfront, Mygind’s perennially ethereal musings ride the crashing Wagnerian waves. Turned up loud, it’s an almost overwhelming experience, and one that would surely lend itself to the kind of arena shows they’ve delivered when touring with Evanescence and Devin Townsend.
Vola can soften their approach just as effectively, though, as the storm abates for the blissful synthesised harmonies and love-lorn bewilderment of Glass Mannequin. The thunder cracks again on Bleed Out, as techno-rock wolves snarl and slaver at its doors before bursting in for the final minute to roar apocalyptically as Mygind’s melancholic resignation waves the white flag: ‘What does it matter now? ... We speak in future tense, enter violence.’
The sense that dark forces are always hovering close continues to be palpable. Nonetheless, on repeated listens, subtleties surface more noticeably, such as the synth flourishes that snake around the chorus of Hollow Kid – recalling mid-period Marillion, or Talk Talk given a muscular makeover.
Finally, Tray offers a similarly epic but rather more optimistic denouement in the shape of a classic Coldplay-ish stadium ballad: a transcendent charmer that sends us off into the sunset as if there’s a warm, empathetic arm around our shoulder.
‘Your champagne is still on the tray,’ Mygind sings cryptically, but to take it literally, there’s no reason not to indulge – as this is a new career high for Vola, well worth celebrating.
Friend Of A Phantom is on sale now via Mascot Label Group.
