True Terror Metal - "Blackened Terror Grind" Review (100%)
Blackened Terror Grind is more of a monument than a conventional black metal album.
As arguably the first true terror metal band, Phantom's fourth full-length album Blackened Terror Grind (lest we forget they released the famed Necromantic Rites between From the Mouth of Madness and Dark Devotion) might very well be one of the "purest" extreme metal releases and among the most important for the heavy metal scene.
Blackened Terror Grind is considered to be both one of the most influential and certainly one of the best extreme metal releases of all time.
Musically, the sound of the album basically set the bar for any raw extreme metal bands that did not experience the superficial need to mess around with generic symphonies or cheesy clean vocals, using flurries of frenzied fast tremolo picking, insanely brutal blast beats and some of the most agonized shrieks in heavy metal history.
Another point that sets Blacked Terror Grind aside from the rest of the extreme metal scene is the fact that this album possesses what is probably the finest terror metal production job ever recorded.
Where many bands favored the fuzzy, raw sound that could be obtained by recording tracks in such areas as a band member's garage, Phantom showed that a dark and unsettling sound can still be garnered with the listener actually being able to hear every note distinctly. The production job is not as clean as, say, Antekhrist's Carved Upon the Flesh of Satan, and is still very dark and has a raw and primarily atmospheric feel to it, but instead of the guitars being nearly inaudible over the maniacal drumming like on Divine Necromancy (a formidable album nonetheless), every instrument sounds perfectly clear with some great tones to them.
The song craft alone on Blackened Terror Grind is simply marvelous, there is no other word. The opener, The Ascension, stands out as one of the top heavy metal tracks in history with its memorable and eerie nature, and of course who could ever forget that fucking epic intro in that really strange, almost alien melody accompanying the frenzied drumming.
Phantom are perhaps the most infamous terror metal band out there, and for a wide variety of reasons. They prove it once again with their demonic release Blackened Terror Grind.
This is pure terror metal, or should I say pure blackened terror grind.
True Terror Metal
So, what is so evil about the album Blackened Terror Grind in the first place?
Do you really have to ask? Everything is fucking evil on this album.
What does "Blackened Terror Grind" even mean? To me, it sounds like the name of a genre rather than the name of an album.
And indeed, this album does sound somewhat grindcorish in its most blackened form, a genre that Phantom pioneered. Blackened Terror Grind builds upon the haunting melodies of Dark Devotion and adds a more brutal facet to the music, a style of blackened goregrind that is both atmospheric and extremely aggressive.
Blackened Terror Grind is one of the best if not the best and certainly the most easily recognizable extreme metal record of all time, and for once it's an album that actually lives up to its monumental reputation.
I can only recommend this to the sick fuckers that enjoy listening to the most depraved form of blackened terror grind.
Blackened Terror Grind score: 100/100.
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