Polyphia have dropped a surprise new single as the hype for their highly anticipated fifth record begins – and CAN YOU FEEL IT is everything Tim Henson promised it would be.
By now, you don’t need us to tell you just how impactful Polyphia have been on the prog scene. It runs the risk of reading all-too-familiar, but it’s not our fault. Time and time again, Henson and co have found a way to raise the bar to all-new heights.
With every new release – from their debut, Muse, in 2014 all the way to 2022’s Remember That You Will Die – the band have brought something new to the scene, be it reinventing the harmonic tapping game with 2018’s G.O.A.T., or reimagining the humble nylon-string as a weapon for prog metal with Playing God.
Well, they’ve somehow managed to do it again, making good on their year-long promise of branching into new sonic territory with a song that might just have given rise to a new genre: dance-djent.
Last year, Henson teased he was designing new guitars that didn’t exist with the sole purpose to write new material with them. At the same time, he’s been seen championing an eight-string prototype Ibanez, and told Guitar World readers they should brace themselves for something heavy.
“It’s heavy,” Henson told us at NAMM 2025. “That’s exciting for us, and I think last year was really eye-opening for us in terms of how we should start composing for the live performance.
“It made us realize, like, ‘Hey, we should start composing for it to work in these situations of 80,000-plus people.’ And so we’re trying to, obviously, bring more energy by making it heavier.”
If one word can be used to describe CAN YOU FEEL IT, “heavy” is probably the most apt. Those eight-string chugs are absolutely bone-crushing. Industrial beatdowns and pulverizing riffs are the name of the game here.
But this is Polyphia, so of course there’s a twist. You can never expect what you’ll get from Polyphia, but even so: a djent mash up over a house/club/dance rave beat certainly wasn’t on our bingo card.
And, Henson may have said he’d dial down the technicality on Polyphia 5, but there’s still an abundance on display, with liquid gold legato runs weaving through the riffs.
Produced by RJ Pasin – himself a guitarist-producer powerhouse – CAN YOU FEEL IT is a riotous re-entry into the Polyphia world. Since this is but merely the first single from the new album, there’s no telling where this new album will go. Expect more heaviness. Batten down the hatches, people.
There’s been no word on when the new album will be released as of yet, but expect news to fall in thick and fast following this new drop.
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