Album Review: Phantom Of The Hill by Galactic Pegasus

Galactic Pegasus release their debut full length album Phantom Of The Hill on 18^th November. Hailing from British Columbia, Canada this is standard progressive metalcore. Heavily influenced by the metalcore of the late 2000s with a smattering of more modern djent movement this isn’t going to pop to many surprises but it is an enjoyable listen.

Now if you’re not into metalcore then it’s probably best to walk away now. This isn’t the record for you and it certainly isn’t going to change your mind. Don’t be thinking of the accessible metalcore of Killswitch Engage this falls into the heavier end of the spectrum, while the clean vocal parts may spring a reminder of Fear Factory don’t be fooled into thinking that this will be an access point to the genre.

Broadly speaking this is nothing more than a standard metalcore album. It doesn’t add anything to the genre, it sticks stringently to the template without variation. As such this could be any of a dozen bands, does that make it bad? No. Does it make it interesting? No.

Opening two tracks ‘Jenova’ and ‘Mare Imbrium’ hint that this could be a cracking album before the next nine track mould and blend into one heaving mass of churning and repetitive riffs. The clean vocals on ‘Bottoms Up’ are a high point and the riff on ‘Homecoming’ is excellent, but apart from that there’s nothing much to note. The vocal work of main man Johnny Ciardullo is just shy of being truly awful, apparently “Phantom Of The Hill features lyrical content that attempts to share dualities with human life. It’s themes vary between bold and literal such as love and life decisions, to more abstract metaphysical and existential themes.” If you could work that out congratulations, nothing like that came through the screams for me.

That said it wasn’t a bad album. Perfectly acceptable for putting on in the background, it isn’t going to distract or draw your attention. The less said about the awful band name the better.

AD Rating 5/10