Progressive RockMetal
Polyphia release “Be Not Afraid” on Friday 23 October through Rise Records. It is the fifth album by the instrumental quartet from Plano, Texas, and there are twelve tracks, three of which can already be heard: “Can You Feel It”, out on 11 June and their first new material in over four years; “Power In The Blood”, from 26 August, with a video shot in the church of São Francisco da Penitência in Rio de Janeiro; and “With Eyes To See”, released on Wednesday.
They cut it across 2024 and 2025 in Miami, Los Angeles and Dallas with RJ Pasin co-producing and guitarist Spiro Dussias alongside. Tim Henson wrote differently this time: he sang the lines out loud first and then moved them onto the guitar. “The album takes you through the extremes of two different worlds / moods: one being very uplifting and triumphant, the other being spine-chilling and terrifying,” he says. “There are moments on the record that legitimately scare me when I listen to them.”
The other tracks are “Let There Be Light”, “Screwtape”, “They Know Not What They Do”, “Mark of the Beast”, “Near Death”, “J-Bomb”, “Deny the Flesh”, “Devil Get Behind Me” and “Fear God”.
The world tour, produced by Live Nation, reaches Razzmatazz Sala 1 on Sunday 22 November at 8.30pm. It is the only Catalan date: in Spain they play here and at La Riviera in Madrid the next night, and nowhere else. Advance tickets are €47.50 with fees included, the show is 16-plus, and they’re sold through livenation.es and Ticketmaster. The European leg starts in Zurich on 18 November and finishes at the O2 Academy Brixton in London on 16 December; Perturbator supports every European and UK date, and RJ Pasin every date worldwide.
The band is Tim Henson and Scott LePage on guitars, Clay Gober on bass and Clay Aeschliman on drums, and it came together in 2010. “Remember That You Will Die”, from 2022, was the previous album.
Text by Guillem Cardós