Style: Sludge, progressive metal (mixed vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Mastodon, The Ocean, Baroness
Country: United States
Release date: 25 May 2026

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The concept of an “egregore” sits somewhere between Jung’s collective unconscious and Lovecraftian cosmic horror, an entity built on collective thought created by the beliefs and emotions of a group. It’s fertile ground for metal, where occultism and psychology have long shared a recording space. It’s also an apt metaphor for a band. A great musical partnership eventually stops sounding like a collection of individuals and begins behaving like a single creative organism. On Egregore, Phase Meridian spend much of the album convincing me they’ve achieved exactly that.

Members Joe McCumber, Keven Shermock, and Jake Spanier trade vocal duties—clean to harsh, member to member—with the same ease that they navigate sludgy riffs and proggy stylistic shifts. These handoffs feel instinctive, rather than like a relay race, with each member finishing ideas begun by another. “In the Palm (of the Dead Hand)” is the clearest example, its transitions so fluid that individual performances remain secondary to the momentum of the song itself. The track moves through a bouncy opening riff, a driving clean verse, a maniacal harsh chorus, and a layered bridge before the outro arrives on a major key swell, sending you off with a clean vocal melody riding over a harsh vocal bed underneath. The last thirty seconds alone—where the ethereal and the brutal inhabit the same moment, neither canceling the other out—is the greatest evidence of Phase Meridian’s chemistry.

If you click on my name at the top of the page and pull up any review at random, there will no doubt be some variation on the same sermon: I am a servant of the riff. The rhythm guitar is my gospel, and I spread its good word accordingly. Egregore is a riff-rich record. From their pummeling ferocity at the outset on “Violence is Sacred” to their vicious deluge in “Negative Patterns”, practically every guitar-fueled motif on the album has me stank-facing. The title track is another standout, bobbing in a 6/8 sea-sick sway that’s as infectious as it is heavy. The production of the guitars and bass is also wonderful, with a dirty and unpolished quality that somehow also leaves every note crystal clear. That’s how I like my sludge.

Egregore’s tight thirty minute runtime leaves me wanting more, though. Taxing that sentiment are the two shortest tracks, which seem to be undeveloped at best, and a waste of time at worst. “УЗБ-76” is an interlude track made up of sound effects; rather than functioning as connective tissue, those ninety-eight seconds are little more than a collection of odd noises that neither develop the preceding ideas nor meaningfully usher in what follows. On a compact album where every minute should strengthen the illusion of a unified consciousness, this detour breaks the spell. The final track “Nightswell”, oddly enough, sounds like an intro that stops right as it’s about to get going.

Yet, the collective consciousness of this Egregore remains, drenched in sludgy aura. Two unfitting tracks don’t take away from the album’s prevailing monster riffs, catchy vocal tradeoffs, and deft transitions that firmly root Phase Meridian in progressive sludge. The thoughtform flickers a couple of times, but it never dissipates. By the album’s end, you’ll be firmly convinced that the threepiece is one consciousness.

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Recommended tracks: “In the Palm (of the Dead Hand)”, “Egregore”, “For Those Who Choose Extinction”
You may also like: Intronaut, Anciients, Palaces, Witch Ripper, Cobra the Impaler
Final verdict: 7/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Phase Meridian is:
– Joe McCumber (guitars, vocals, synthesizers)
– Keven Shermock (drums, vocals)
– Jake Spanier (bass, vocals, keyboards)
With guests:
– Erik Lamp (backing vocals, synthesizers)
– Sami Sati (vocals)
– Tanner Swenson (vocals)