Phobos
Corp. - This Divine Tragedy (song review) |self-released, Felicity
EP, 2012| 4/5
She
was a young sensitive being who devoted herself to a man she
literally loved to death. However, her jealous father couldn't stand
the way his beautiful daughter was looking at her lover. He hated
every minute she was spending with this stranger to a point where a
horrific plan was born into his mind. Her father became convinced
that he must stop their suffering.
The
girl returned soon after this wicked revelation. A shaking shadow had
been seen in the corner of the room where her father had been locking
her up... and where he killed her. None of this could make her stop
seeing her lover. She was shifting along with the warm summer air in
the garden after dusk; where she kissed her man the very first time.
A murky glance in his eyes had already told her there would be a dark
secret to keep. She thought she could deal with it because the power
of their love could protect them from any disaster.
The
above script is a fictional story. When you look at the cover art of
this release you'll see an exhausted young girl who's laying naked on
the floor of an abandoned room. A dark image that illustrates the
idea behind this concept EP very well. A fictional character named
Felicity is the focal point of this album. She was once killed, but
now returns as a ghost to tell the story of her tragic love through
four symphonic metal songs.
"This
Divine Tragedy" is song number 3 on the tracklist. It begins
with an instrumental introduction that would perfectly match an RPG
fantasy video game such as Skyrim, Witcher or World of Warcraft.
Personally, I wouldn't mind if the entire song was a continuation of
the intro.
After
such a magical beginning, the composition brings angelic female
voices and chunky guitars that are accompanied by bass and drums. The
track also includes a guitar solo near the end of the song while
keyboards and a violin occasionally interlace with the arrangements.
We're not talking about songwriting aspects that comprise the fury
of a storm here, but compositional structures that are built in a
safe way that avoids deviation.
On
the other hand, the song is surprisingly short and lasts less than 4
minutes. For such an orientation of orchestral arrangements, "This
Divine Tragedy" could have been extended in a manner that would
be fitting to tease with a listener's emotions. This could be done by
building specific moods that rely on ascending peaks and descending
hollows which lead to accumulative climaxes in certain segments. In
fact, it would be great if Phobos Corp. could get a full symphonic
orchestra to perform this track live.
Spyros
Papadakis (keyboards) is the open minded leader behind Phobos Corp.
He writes orchestral arrangements and mixes them with metal music.
This genre has been the target of his interest since he was 12 years
old, while his knowledge of compositional techniques applied to both
styles of music allows him to experiment with the cross-over dynamics
of the instruments. Technically speaking, he usually begins writing
arrangements derived from melodies and chords, including orchestral
scores for string instruments.
Spyros
is a native of Greece, where he set up Phobos Corp. in 1995, but he
continues to branch out to a worldwide audience in terms of musical
cooperation as well as acquiring fans for support. Thus, Felicity
was recorded with the help of soundtrack composers such as Jon Ong &
Zach Lemmon (orchestral arrangements), Shoi Sen (guitar), Mark Jones
(guitar, bass), Chris Sutherland (drums) and a professional female
vocalist named Tara. The EP was mixed & mastered by British
producer Dave Chang who worked with artists such as Orange Goblin,
Dagoba, Earthtone9 and
Stampin' Ground.
We've
heard a lot about the economic disasters happening in Greece
recently, so hopefully Spyros can make his ideas come to fruition
while cooperating with a worldwide network. This may lead to his
dream of scoring movies to come true. The band has not made plans to
tour at this time since Spyros intends to release either a few more
concept EPs or a full length album to have more songs for the purpose
of live performances.
"This
Divine Tragedy" has possible hit potential, though the best
chance if the track is illustrated with a matching music video or
finds it's way into distribution as a song from a movie soundtrack.
(Katarzyna
NINa Górnisiewicz, Fabryka Magazine, May 31st, 2012)
http://www.phoboscorp.com
http://soundcloud.com/phoboscorp
http://www.youtube.com/phoboscorp
http://www.reverbnation/phoboscorp
http://www.last.fm/music/Phobos+Corp.
http://www.facebook.com/PhobosCorpOfficial
http://www.twitter.com/phoboscorp
Buy
on
http://www.cdbaby.com/cd/phoboscorp/from/fabryka
http://www.amazon.com/Felicity/dp/B0081X3IAM
http://phoboscorp.bandcamp.com
This
review on
Fabryka
Magazine
http://industrialrock.net/php-files_en/articles.php?article_id=42
Testimonials
I
LOVE your review, it's so cool!!! Thank you very much for this. It
was awesome to read it!!
Spyros Papadakis | 04.06.2012 |
Spyros Papadakis | 04.06.2012 |
Reviewed by Google+ Music Reviews