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"With "Layers Of Pain", Phil Manca offers us an album somewhere between hard rock and heavy metal of the highest quality."
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4/5
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Phil Manca gets tougher. After two heavy blues albums ("Signs" and "Dancing Spirits"), the Frenchman turns his music clearly towards heavy metal with "Layers Of Pain". Hardly surprising for a guitarist who began his career with TNT and Sortilège. What is more surprising, however, is the relative anonymity with which he has struggled since the start of his solo career. Although he has often operated in the shadows in the past, it's about time he got the recognition he deserves, because this new album is clearly no match for today's best hard and heavy productions.
Even if Phil Manca's influences are quite obvious on certain tracks - Van Halen on 'Nightstalker', Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath on 'Flat Brains' - the Parisian has the intelligence not to let them invade his compositions. All the more so as his singer, Josselin Jobard, is much more in line with the grunge singers of the '90s than their '70s counterparts.
Multiplying incisive riffs ('The Race Is On', 'Love In Veins', 'High And Short'), Phil Manca makes no secret of his desire to fight, guided by a fierce determination to place the guitar at the heart of a compositional process that leaves no room for chance. Each track breathes (hard) rock, and allows him to shine through with high-flying solos of infallible technique and communicative energy (the excellent 'S.M.I.L.E.').
Even though heavy blues is never far away on tracks like 'High And Short' and 'Life In My Hand', Phil Manca offers us an album somewhere between hard rock and heavy metal of the highest quality, and doesn't forget to pay tribute to his idol Gary Moore on 'Layers Of Pain'. Like Pat O'May, with whom he has more than one thing in common, Phil Manca once again shows us just how much talent there is in our country, talent that deserves more than just polite consideration. It's high time we realized that. - Official website
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TRACK LISTING:
01. The Race Is On - 4:13 02. Angels Don’T Cry (West Memphis 3) - 5:11 03. Flat Brains - 4:15 04. Layers Of Pain - 4:55 05. Love In Vein - 3:38 06. Night Stalker - 4:01 07. S.M.I.L.E - 4:03 08. High And Short - 3:54 09. Life In My Hand - 4:53
LINEUP:
Eric Lafont: Batterie Josselin Jobard: Chant / Basse Phil Manca: Guitares
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READERS
4/5 (1 view(s))
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STAFF:
4/5 (1 view(s))
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IN RELATION WITH PHIL MANCA
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"Osmium out now !" |
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