Published by Davide Pappalardo on January 13, 2018
Hayden Payne is an American born and Berlin-based musician, DJ and producer hailing from New York. He is no newcomer to the world of music, in the past years he played post-punk and coldwave with bands like Void Vision, Dream Affair, Anasazi, and since 2014 he offers his own brand of post-punk and EBM influenced techno-industrial under the name Phase Fatale.
After many EPs (Skyscraper for Avant!, Grain for aufnahme+wiedergabe, Issue N° Ten and N° Fifteen for Jealous God and Anubis for Underton) he finally delivers his first full length called Redeemer, unsurprisingly following the aforementioned influences and styles in an eerie, dark, work which fuses early industrial and post-punk atmospheres with techno rhythms and EBM tinged sequences.
The first four tracks (the A side of the vinyl edition) show us a more menacing and straight sound: Spoken ashes is a riffing affairs with chainsaw basslines and pounding rhythms, whereas Operate within is a EBM number with filtered vocals and thundering loops underlined by melancholic atmospheres. Human shield is a futuristic soundtrack for an imaginary sci-fi film, full of shrilling effects and obsessive drum machines, Interference a noisy and crawling track with sampled, startling chants, an episode showing the creepier and more industrial side of his music.
Then, we have the second side consisting of three heavily post-punk inspired songs: Order of severity works within a looping riff enriched by a decadent atmospheres and completed by a snare-sound, Beast is a static noise with abrasive distortions and almost sacral lines, and the title track has an almost epic songwriting based on steady rhythms and evocative synth-lines, partially recalling retrowave sounds, but in a way more serious and dark setting.
Redeemer is a realization of Phase Fatale view on techno-industrial and its linkage with EBM and post-punk tradition. While not a placid or relaxing work, it seems it likes to rely not only on ferocious rhythmic attacks, using melancholic, dark atmospheres and experimental sounds too. A staring point for a new chapter in his interesting career, one to follow closely in his next endeavors and evolutions.
Label: Hospital Productions
Rating: 7,5