As soon as PhaseOne’s debut album TRANSCENDENCY was announced in earlier this month, it was already one the most anticipated albums the year. Dropping the news on April Fool’s had fans wary that it was a joke, but sitting here now, 13 tracks and 43 minutes later after listening to this album, it’s safe to say this album is no joke at all.
Plenty artists have melded metal and bass already, the most salient among them being names like Sullivan King (who screams his own vocals and plays his own guitar, adding to the authenticity his music) or Kayzo. But where PhaseOne differs from either them is who he campaigned to appear on his album: Modestep, Thy Art Is Murder, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Northland, Periphery, Subtronics, and Koven.
It’s not a far cry to call this the best bass album the year so far. The competition in that category is slim, with only a few artists like Delta Heavy, Liquid Stranger, or LSDREAM releasing full-on bass albums in 2019. (Feed Me’s album High Street Creeps falls in a gray area.) Between the hair-raising riddim anthems and the absolutely wild metal fusions on “Crash & Burn” or “Digital,” TRANSCENDENCY is wildly entertaining and endlessly impressive. Plenty the songs have applications for live special guests, while others, like “Demon Hunter” or “Break Em” are made to just melt faces.
And by the time you get to “Lost” with Koven, when you think PhaseOne has covered all his bases, he introduces a bit crazy drum n bass into the mix to truly round things out.
I’ve actually had the album for a couple weeks, since we premiered “Crash & Burn” with Northlane earlier this month, and every person I’ve shown the album to in that time has had the same reaction: “Oh my god, what the f*ck is this.” The wide versatility and appeal TRANSCENDENCY, despite its intensity and rather specific demographic, is what makes the album so good. For most the bass community that either grew up on metal or emo, this album hits all the boxes and marks all the themes what a truly transcendent bass album should be.
TRANSCENDENCY is out now Disciple — listen to it below.