Country: USA
Genre: Sludge /
Release: May 25, 2026
For fans of: Mastodon, The Ocean, Baroness
Review | Metal Territory
Phase Meridian return with Egregore, a record that builds a collective consciousness through sludge weight, progressive transformations and a chemistry that makes the trio sound like a single organism. The concept of the egregore — an entity born from collective thought — fits their music perfectly, since here ideas belong not to individuals but to a shared creative flame.
Joe McCumber, Keven Shermock and Jake Spanier share the vocals in a way that doesn’t feel like a «relay», but like a natural flow. Clean and harsh vocals alternate without drawing attention to the performer, but to the music itself. “In the Palm (of the Dead Hand)” is the most characteristic example: it starts with a bouncy riff, moves into clean voice, explodes into a harsh chorus and closes with a beautiful, dual vocal layer where clean and brutal voice coexist without cancelling each other out.
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Egregore is full of riffs. “Violence is Sacred” opens with a sludge attack that grabs you by the throat, while “Negative Patterns” continues with a heavy, dirty pattern that makes you smirk with pleasure. The self-titled “Egregore” moves in a 6/8 sea-sick sway, a drunken, wave-like riff that sticks in the mind. The production is dirty but clear, with guitars and bass that have the necessary mud without blurring the notes — exactly how sludge should sound.
The record lasts just thirty minutes, which works in its favor, but the two shortest tracks weaken the cohesion a little. “УЗБ-76” is an interlude with sounds and noises that don’t add anything to the flow, while “Nightswell” feels like an intro that stops before it starts. In such a compact record, these two points slightly break the unified consciousness the band builds.
Even so, Egregore remains a strong progressive sludge record, full of monster riffs, clever vocal switches and a chemistry that makes Phase Meridian sound like one body, one thought, one entity. The thoughtform flickers at two points, but it never disappears. By the end, you’re convinced that the trio operates as a single consciousness.
Line-up: Joe McCumber – Guitars, Vocals, Synths Keven Shermock – Drums, Vocals Jake Spanier – Bass, Vocals, Keyboards
Tracklist:
- In the Palm (of the Dead Hand)
- Violence is Sacred
- Negative Patterns
- Egregore
- УЗБ-76
- Nightswell
