PHASE TRANSITION
Portuguese prog-metallers tackle the state of the world on their debut record.
“I WAS INTRODUCED to Dream Theater by my guitar teacher,” admits Phase Transition guitarist Luís Dias when asked about his introduction to prog. Drummer Fernando Maia took a similar route.“My father introduced me to Pink Floyd and other progressive music, but when Luís played me Dream Theater, I was in love. I picked up Metropolis Pt 2: Scenes From A Memory and I instantly stopped listening to anything else and instead just listened to Dream
Theater,” he adds.
“I heard Scenes… and I was hooked, too,” adds vocalist-violinist Sofia Beco.“We used to cover a lot of songs off that record!”
It’s through playing covers – “a lot of Metallica and Megadeth, to get better technically,” says Maia – under the name Pernas De Pau (‘Wooden Legs’) that the Portuguese quartet formed.“We were in that stage of just playing covers and had a great gig at Hard Club, which is a pretty big venue here in Porto,” says Dias. “After that gig we decided that it would be more satisfying playing our own music to people, so we did a ‘phased transition’ to composing our own music.”
Although evidently heavily influenced by Dream
Theater, a lot of other bands have inspired them.
“Haken are definitely a big influence,” says Dias. “They include lots of different elements, from electronic music to jazz, and their complexity – technical passages, alternating time signatures and groove – they do it all and with extreme expertise. [We like] Opeth as well, but for me Symphony X is the obvious influence, I learnt a lot from Michael Romeo!”
Adds Beco: “We like music that brings new ideas and playing prog enables us to do that, we can explore different ways of thinking.” And Beco’s bluesy voice and violin work also brings something different, too. As we discuss musical tastes and backgrounds, she talks through the concept behind the video for In The Dark, from their latest EP, Relatively Speaking, which was released in 2020 and recorded, mixed and mastered by producer Afonso Aguiar (aka TitanForged), who’s a friend of the band.
“A song can have a lot of different interpretations but this video showcases two phases: one that’s darker and another that’s happier,” Beco says. “It’s kind of a reflection of our duty in the world; ideas that one might have when not in the best place, that we’re in this sort of machine. Our EP was several ideas that we merged, but it definitely focuses on our society and the world around us.”
Relatively Speaking was an energetic recording experience.“We learnt a lot with Afonso, he’s a perfectionist, he really made us work intensely hard on the EP,” says Dias. “After the first day of recording, I went home with such bad wrist pain that I didn’t know if I was ready to record the second day…”
Phase Transition are currently working on some new material and although they have no confirmed live shows yet for 2022, they do have their sights set on some European festivals in the future. Take note, festival bookers.“We’ve been checking out [the lineups for] ArcTanGent in Bristol, and also Prognosis in the Netherlands – that would be fun to play.”
“WE LIKE MUSIC THAT BRINGS NEW IDEAS, AND PLAYING PROG ENABLES US TO DO THAT.”