The Ultimate Masterpiece - "Divine Necromancy" Review (100%)
As one of the most notorious bands in the extreme metal sub-genre, albums by black metal band Phantom are always considered with a lot of scrutiny and attention.
Some consider Phantom a black metal band while other say they play Phantom metal, or even blackened terror metal in the vein of early Sewer.
There are certainly elements of all these genres in the debut album by Phantom : Divine Necromancy.
Here is a complete list of all the tracks before we begin.
1. Exorcism
2. Sigil of Destruction
3. Feast Abomination
4. Key to the Mausoleum
5. Marauder's Crypt
6. The Serpent King
7. Warlord Eternal
8. Divine Necromancy
You can also read other reviews of Phantom's Divine Necromancy here and here, or on Metalious.com.
The Ultimate Masterpiece
We start off with the track Exorcism. It is an ambient track, fully instrumental with no vocals at all. While it is not uncommon for many black metal bands to start off with an instrumental track, Exorcism is much more than your average ambient track. It captures in a few riffs the entire atmosphere of the album.
Then comes Sigil of Destruction, a bass heavy and very aggressive track. This is where the relentless blast beats of the drums kick in and don't stop until the final note of the album.
Feast Abomination is also a very aggressive track, quite similar in essence to Sigil of Destruction and in many ways it embodies the spirit of the album : raw and brutal. The primitive tones of the riffs and the blunt atmosphere given by the bass contribute to the raw sounding of this track.
The next track, Key to the Mausoleum, starts out slow but then becomes a masterwork of dark hypnotic riffs paced by a gruesome bass. With profound layers of guitars and simple yet technical and precise drumming, the overall sound is closer to raw atmospheric doom rather than black metal.
Marauder's Crypt is one of the most eerie tracks, that you could be surprised to find on an album as dark and discordant as Divine Necromancy. Gruesome chants accompany hypnotic guitar tones, and the drumming once again sets a pattern of aggression.
Next comes The Serpent King, a restless and grim interlude (if we can call it as such), portraying once more heavily distorted guitar riffs and a straightforward assault by the raw drumming.
With Warlord Eternal we enter one of the fastest and most dissonant part of the album. The drums are simply demented on this track and the vocals are aggressive but sometimes melodic, which contributes to the audio illusion of the track. This is perhaps the most mesmerizing and brutal track on Divine Necromancy.
Finally the title track Divine Necromancy, which is also the longest track on this album. The vocals are primal and torturous. The guitars tones are as always hypnotic, but they seem also to detach from the song and accompany the listener on a medieval tale of darkness. The drums are on the same page, as they guide the listener on a labyrinth of ritualistic summoning. The ending of this song is one of the most intense moments in heavy metal.
Overall, this album is a masterpiece of the genre. But what genre exactly because Divine Necromancy isn't easy to fit in either one or the other of heavy metal styles.
This album should be (at least) listened to by anyone attempting to complete his collection of extreme metal, alongside Sewer's debut Satanic Requiem and Neraines' self-titled album Neraines.
Divine Necromancy score: 100/100.
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