Polyphia - ‘Remember That You Will Die’

Purveyors of the instrumental scene Polyphia are back with their fourth studio album, ‘Remember That You Will Die’, and it serves as the perfect reminder as to why and how they have trailblazed their way to the top of their level. Though we may have gotten the first taste of this new album earlier this year in the form of single ‘Playing God’ they have managed to keep their audience on their toes, eagerly anticipating their next unpredictable move.

Every single thing about this album has the standard makings of a Polyphia release, with a few added bonuses. They’ve moved away from some of their more commercially successful songs like ‘G.O.A.T’ and incorporated other styles and genres into the writing. Opening track ‘Genesis (feat. Brasstracks)’ has an entirely different range of instrumentation in use and offers the perfect introduction to this new Polyphia sound. There is a whole brass section within that works to compliment Tim Henson’s guitar work, instead of overpowering which is all to frequent with these instruments. ‘Genesis’ has a certain groove to it that is reminiscent of bands like Vulfpeck or Busty and the Bass. The common denominator between these artists is a love of and skills in technical guitar playing. While Henson knows his way around a guitar, he has taken inspiration from these other funk-driven artists for a good portion of the tracks on ‘Remember You Will Die’. ‘Reverie’ has that exact same groove and funk that you can’t help but bop your head to, with the addition of a dirty guitar tone that allows Henson to scream those lead lines.

After all, Henson has his own Archetype with guitar plugin company Neural DSP, so he has literally all the knowledge he needs to substitute vocals lines for guitar riffs. It is truly impressive that Polyphia has managed to create an instrumental album that requires just a miniscule number of vocal hooks, instead letting the guitars do all the singing. In the rare instance that Polyphia have decided to collaborate with a vocalist, it seems that they are better left alone. Having a playing style as technical as Henson’s and not adapting it or budging in the slightest to aid a vocalist seems an extremely odd choice to make. When everything is put together in the final track, it doesn’t feel far off a jazz instrumental where each part clashes with everything around it and begins to feel like sensory overload. Take ‘ABC’ featuring Sophia Black or ‘Fuck Around and Find Out’ featuring rapper $NOT as examples. The vocal lines and lyrics on the former of these tracks struggle to keep up with the beat and accents of Henson’s playing (which is ultimately the lead vocal line). In all honesty, they just sound redundant in the track and add nothing but too much – sometimes less is more and Polyphia haven’t quite caught on to that fact yet. It works a lot better in ‘Memento Mori’ featuring Killstation. The track itself is a lot slower and carries that same groove that Polyphia are so well known for, while still allowing time for Henson to showboat outside of the vocal lines and not overpower the song completely.

With this album containing collaboration with respective industry heavyweights Chino Moreno and Steve Vai, it’s no shock that Polyphia are gaining so much traction. They weave a multitude of genres together to create a sound that can literally only be described as ‘Polyphia’ – there is no other artist out there that can do what they currently are, no matter how hard some might try.