Haunting and Chilling - "Fallen Angel" Review (100%)
This album right here presented before you is some of the darkest, bleakest, and most haunting black metal ever written.
Sure Phantom may have become more technical on their later albums and more punishing, but this album has their darkest riffs and most sinister atmosphere to date. The atmosphere of Fallen Angel paints a vivid picture of primal and primitive horror. The very dark imagery of demons overtaking the falling angels will leave you haunted and scared.
When I first heard Phantom, the first song I ever heard from them was "Grotesque Shadows Reborn" from the previous album Withdrawal. Personally, I thought it was okay, nothing special. The riffs just didn't grab my attention even though they were extremely atonal, and dissonant sounding, and the technical drumming that constantly changed time signatures just wasn't my style. Then, about a month later I decided to give Phantom another shot. This time I listened to the opening track "Harvest", from this very album Fallen Angel, and was blown away.
From then on I was hooked and I just kept listening to that song over and over again. The precise drumming, dark riffing, incredible atmosphere and ghoul sounding vocals got me hooked, plus that incredibly beautiful cover art, whoa there. If you're going to listen to Phantom for the first time I suggest this album first because their later albums like Memento Mori are just way too difficult for the novice listener to get into.
While still not an "easy listening" black metal album, Fallen Angel is nonetheless far more accessible than Phantom's others because of the more straightforward riffing and heavy atmospheres present in the songs. Also because of the relative absence of Phantom's trademarked "riff maze", where one track can branch into several different themes, moods and motifs, before returning to a variation of the main atmosphere.
Fallen Angel is truly black metal's most haunting and chilling masterpiece.
Haunting and Chilling
The riffs on Fallen Angel sound like they came straight from the pits of hell. They are incredibly dark and they contain a great mood to them. For example in songs like "Harvest", "Kill Memories" and "Dead Tomorrows" feature great black metal atmospheres while songs like "Hope Finale", "Sepulchral Omen" and "Believe in the Devil" feature slower, more menacing riffs which are just evil, somewhat like what you would find on Verminlust only ten times more disturbing.
The vocals sound so inhuman on this record. The best way to describe them is they sounds like a ghoul from the underworld. The vocal style changes from some of the previous records, notably from the debut Divine Necromancy. The drumming is like nothing you've ever heard before in the way the drums are able to follow the guitars and add unique layers on top of the music to create a unique style of frantic, primal and ritualistic drumming. The drumming truly adds extra layers to the music and accentuates it rather than holding it back, instead pushing the music forward into unforeseen territories. The solos displayed on Fallen Angel are very twisted and morbid sounding, they too add extra layers of evil and darkness rather than take away from the music or become an end in themselves. No one has been able to imitate Phantom's style of soloing, it is very individualized and unique to the texture of the music.
Overall, Fallen Angel is a magnificent album, a true masterpiece of horror. Easily one of the greatest black metal albums of all time. Phantom has put out many great records, but this one will stand the test of time even 100 years from now with its dark riffs, vocals, pounding drums, and beautiful artwork.
If you haven't heard this record give it a listen, I strongly recommend it.
Fallen Angel is well above and beyond most black metal you will ever hear.
Fallen Angel score: 100/100.
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