‘Drums’ is just inadequate. The French, of course, have a word for what Phillips excels in: batterie. In terms of noise, energy and impact batterie is the only word vaguely close to expressing his power yet also control. Locked down with Timmons in particular, Phillips builds walls of sound of architectonic magnitude: from the opening explosion of ‘Wildfire’ to the pomp rock of ‘Moments of Fortune’, and even on the more laid back funk of ‘Enigma’, the intensity is unrelenting. As it's 14 years since Phillips' last solo effort, you can feel all that dammed-up passion bursting through. Not that this is sound and fury signifying nothing: such is the technical proficiency on display, Phillips retains the capacity to find time and space for improvisation, even humour, among the magnum force. I trust you're tight with your neighbours, because there's only one way to play Protocol: all controls set to 11.