PHAL:ANGST Drop Video For “What A Time To Be Alive”

Vienna-based industrial/post-rock veterans PHAL:ANGST today reveals their latest video for “What A Time To Be Alive.” The track comes by way of the band’s fifth full-length, Whiteout, out now on Noise Appeal Records.

“What A Time To Be Alive” is the final track on Whiteout. The track’s last and repetitive line, “So also ist das Sterben” (So this is what it’s like to die), carries its listener beyond the realm of the living on a crescendo of noise and harmony, and sums up the cerebral magic of PHAL:ANGST’s sonic sphere.

The video was created by the band’s bass player who inhabits the ‘:’ in the band’s name (which makes sense as the colon is also part of the bass clef) and is also an active solo artist under the name The Bassenger. The work is again an interpretation of a possible journey of life itself. Towards the end, this journey becomes more and more exhausting, the cycle begins to close; it’s a sign(al) of life gradually weakening eventually lost in noise and is also a subtle homage to Neil Gaiman and Dave McKean’s legendary graphic novel Signal To Noise.

Comments “The Bassenger,” ‘Everything was filmed, modified, and cut by myself. While creating the video, I chose the themes water, parents, machines, and humans. This was due to the music itself, the lyrics and samples, but also because of my fondness of the world of water and machines of all kinds, be it wind generators, oil pumps, or cheesy mechanical anthropomorphic effigies from Prater, the famous historic fun park in Vienna. There are also some visual Easter eggs you may want to watch out for.”

Contrary to the band’s signature depressive vibe, the message may very well be: between birth and death there is life, and this can and should be enjoyed as best as possible.

he music contained within Whiteout bears the hallmarks of an exceptionally individualistic, if not idiosyncratic, band. There are no “songs” in the traditional sense of the word; instead, there are sticky, cinematographic sound epics which meander through numerous atmospheres and temperaments. These are frequently dystopic, melancholic, but also hyper harmonic with a distinct penchant for romanticism. This time, distorted eruptions of rage have been reduced in favor of more reverbed Southern Gothic, dulcet metallophone, subtle dub breaks, and rhythmic vocal samples with stomping beats in slow motion. It’s a work that demands patience, quietude, and attention from its listeners… And possibly mental resilience.