ABOUT PHILM

All that comes to pass and all that comes to be.......

Throughout the course of their musical union, the members of PHILM have won over the hearts of music lovers from all walks of life. Performing throughout the world, this talented group has earned the admiration and affection of critics and fans alike. Learn more about their musical experience and new album ‘Time Burner’ set for release on February 19, 2021 via Metalville Records.

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​PHILM

Time Burner

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When the going gets tough, the tough get going.  With two critically acclaimed full-length releases - 2012’s ‘Harmonic’ and its 2014 follow-up, ‘Fire From the Evening Sun’ - under their belts, extensive international touring from Poland to Colombia, and a major line-up change well behind them, Los Angeles CA experimental rockers, PHILM, are returning with ‘Time Burner’, the group’s most musically daring and mature album to date.

Vocalist/guitarist/pianist Gerry Nestler (CIVIL DEFIANCE, KKLEQ MUZZIL) and bassist Pancho Tomaselli (WAR, ULTRAPHONIX) were intent on carrying on after a lineup change in 2016 although it took overcoming various obstacles - legal and otherwise - including finding a new label, to get things fully back on track. Nestler and Tomaselli recruited Grammy Award winning Venezuelan born drummer, Anderson Quintero, for the ’Time Burner’ sessions. “It was definitely a rejuvenating time for us creatively speaking. Before there were certain restrictions, stylistic boundaries if you will, whereas the canvas was wide open when we started writing and recording what became ‘Time Burner’.

Recorded and mixed in Los Angeles and New York with Chris Sorem and Nikhil Kamineni, ‘Time Burner’ tosses and turns monolithic Sabbath-like heaviness (‘Steamroller’), Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd psychedelia (’Spanish Flowers’), bluesy, fuzzed out, stoner vibes (‘1942’), and daredevil funk (’Wonka Vision’) with a jarring hardcore urgency, revealing the kind of musical depth previous albums only hinted. Most glaringly, multi-instrumentalist Nestler has taken a page from the old CIVIL DEFIANCE playbook by juxtaposing vintage PHILM assaults such as ‘Cries of the Century’ and ‘The Seventh Sun’ with several piano based pieces, including the album’s epic 11-minute closer, ‘Time Burner’.  “We are still as heavy and intense as ever – we definitely haven’t turned into a jazz band”, laughs Nestler, “but it’s nice to have that contrast.  Tension and release tends to make for a better listening experience. We’re all really pleased with how ‘Time Burner’turned out and I think the best is yet to come for us.”

Meanwhile, the song 'Spanish Flowers' off of 'Time Burner' is featured in the eponymous animated short film directed by Ness Tomaselli and Fernando Yanes. Described as "a surreal, animated narrative involving a ritual of life and death carried out by two monks and a mourning priestess who is forced to let go of her mummified son", 'Spanish Flowers' has been a selection at several notable film festivals and was the winner at the LA Independent Shorts Awards. 

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'Spanish Flowers' can be viewed at this location:  https://youtu.be/x71OxDM6CTE