To be perfectly honest, part of the reason I jumped on the chance to host this Phlefonyaar video premiere was because it gave me a chance to post the lyrics to the song in question. The UK sludge metal duo posted “Temple Bells at Midnight” as the first public audio from their forthcoming debut album, Septic, Bitter and Hardbitten, which is due April 14 via Cavernous Records, and I embedded the track with the release announcement at the end of last month, because, you know, it’s what you do for that kind of thing, and all the low end, and the growls, and the sludge and the groove, and Paul March and Jim Males seem really pissed off, and so on.

But along with the single itself on their Bandcamp, Phlefonyaar posted the lyrics to the track and I found them particularly striking. “Temple Bells at Midnight” talks about watching a church burn — not new territory for metal there — but instead of bragging either rightly or wrongly about having set the fire, the lyrics take kind of a resigned position with the lines: “And if we’re lucky/It will consume us all.” The fire isn’t something raging against a culturally oppressive force; it’s just a thing that happens on another shitty day. Yeah, the track caps with “Watch the end of lies,” but it feels like an afterthought compared to the core misanthropy and disaffection of the earlier verses. It’s not the church that needs to burn. It’s everything.

I don’t think it would be fair to say Phlefonyaar are taking themselves too seriously with “Temple Bells at Midnight” — March, after all, wears a “Booty Hunter” hat for the entire clip — but neither is their grueling, drum-machine-infused sludge vacuous in its antisocial position in this track. In addition, the video gives us a chance to see the bizarre, two-stringed instrument that allows Males to emit such rumbling low-end, and the we-broke-an-antique microphone through which March‘s distorted ramblings arrive. It’s a weird vibe, and like several heavy videos out of the UK of late, seems to take some influence from ’90s hip-hop in its presentation.

You’ve been duly warned. Septic, Bitter and Hardbitten is out April 14 on Cavernous Records. Video and lyrics follow.

Please enjoy:

Phlefonyaar, “Temple Bells at Midnight” official video

Phlefonyaar on “Temple Bells at Midnight”:

Gather round ladies and germs and let Phlefonyaar bring you a cure to all your happiness problems with the finest Tom Waits inspired doom skiffle this side of your worst Mike Mignola-inspired Freudian nightmares.

From the album: Septic, Bitter and Hardbitten, out via Cavernous Records on April 14 2017. Filmed and edited by: darknorthmedia.com.

Phlefonyaar, “Temple Bells at Midnight”
A blight on you and all of your kind
Screams the man with murder in mind
There’s a grave in which to lay
That will see you through now till judgment day

Mark out a place and stand in the sun
Turn guns on your own and blow them to chum
Fly kites at night over fires of bone
Raise knives to the heavens and burn in your homes

Oh there’s a fire in the church on Hawthorn Street
Where good men go to find there bad to beat
Oh there’s a fire in the church on Hawthorn Street
And if we’re lucky it will consume us all
It will consume us all

Come drink to this with me! Come
Stand by my side!
Come raise a glass with me
Come
Watch the end of lies

Phlefonyaar is:
Paul March: Iron lung, worrisome ramblings and Thunder board
Jim Males: live interpretative dance, bird calls and cable beam contortion

Phlefonyaar on Thee Facebooks

Phlefonyaar on Bandcamp

Cavernous Records on Thee Facebooks

Tags: Cavernous Records, Phlefonyaar, Phlefonyaar Septic Bitter and Hardbitten, Septic Bitter and Hardbitten, UK

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 21st, 2017 at 8:08 am and is filed under Bootleg Theater. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.