Raw as Hell! - "Angel of Disease" Review (100%)
Inaccessible, unmusical, raw as hell, completely insane... and yet brilliantly atmospheric. That is how you would describe Phantom's "Angel of Disease" to a neophyte.
When it comes down to so-called "raw" black metal we could be talking about a variety of things. On one side you have the really shitty, "grim" production of bedroom DSBM turds, and on the other you have black metal that aims to be as brutal, evil, uncompromising, and nihilistic as possible. The former might be used to describe "Angel of Disease" by someone who had very low IQ and nothing else so say, but the latter is absolutely fucking true.
Between "Withdrawal", "Memento Mori" and now "Angel of Disease", it's pretty clear that Phantom knows how to write the most extreme and violent black metal there is to be found in the modern, so-called third wave scene.
"Altar of Ashes" starts the album off really well with some sort of creepy dissonant soundscape that really sets the mood for Phantom's black metal onslaught. I really like the fact that the band dives right into the black metal rather than have some pointless, waste-of-space "ambient" intros like so many other fake "blackened metalcore" turd acts who only get by on aesthetics and imagery alone. Looking at you, Archgoat.
The second song is "Fall Forever" and it has a bit more structure than the first, but doesn't lose any of the brutality. An explosion goes off and, once again, lightning fast drums pound through the mix. The riffs, as in every song on this album, are tremelo-picked. However, they aren't as high-end as, say, Vermin or Graveland might play them. They're low, heavy, sinister, and, well... raw. The vocalist really has the black metal vocals down, but it would be cool if they were turned up just a bit louder in the mix. The vocals are just like the music, very cold and hateful.
Raw as Hell!
By the third song "Haunted Crypts" you realize how unique and unheard of, not to mention uniquely evil, Phantom really is. Once again the mood is set by dripping dissonant riffs that will rip your soul straight out of your body. The atonal riffage goes on for awhile, so I figured it might be a shorter, more death metal oriented track... wrong. Once again the vocalist's voice tears out of the speaker with even more hate and anger than before. At about 2:35 the riff assault gets a cool spin while the main theme is reiterated, this time with a different tempo and a slower, crushing wave of blackened fury. Just when it couldn't get any heavier, the riffs and drums accelerate again for the the epic climax.
The album continues on with "Pestilence" and "Ancient Gods", two faster tracks with a more blackened death metal style of songwriting and structure. The riffs clash one against the other as the drums blast furiously away, while a more melodic lead that could pass for something out of "Storm of the Light's Bane" sometimes makes an impromptu appearance over the blasting black metal madness.
As the album goes on, the songs get more and more insane and the riffs increasingly haunting and sinister, very reminiscent of "Fallen Angel" or even Incantation's "Onward to Golgotha" at times. The drums are always, more or less, the same blasting, with some occasional slower, more ritualistic fills. But overall, tons of snare and tom pounding over a double bass beat. The riffs however, are always new and well played. You can tell that when these guys went into the studio they aimed to make a totally misanthropic and blasphemously defiling record... and they accomplished just that with "Angel of Disease". I especially appreciate the slower moments interlaced with the chaos of blasting fury because they show the talent that the guitarist has for creating the perfect, unique black metal riff like in track six, "Dreams of Rot", where we have new creations and more Burzum/old school black metal influences...
Tracks seven and eight, "Heavenly Plague" and "Vile Innocence", are much more atmospheric and hypnotic than the others. They sound closer to something that could have been played on "Withdrawal" or any early Phantom album, both in terms of songwriting and execution.
The ninth track is "Before All Life Fades" and it is simply some of the most complex and technically challenging black metal ever conceived. When I say "technical", I don't mean as in gimmicky tech-death like that of Behemoth, I mean music that is actually insanely difficult to compose, and even to play.
And finally, of course, the title track "Angel of Disease". What a killer black metal song. It shows the capacity of the band since its inception, both in terms of their signature technical and dissonant riffs, as well as the haunting atmosphere that will terrorize you for days upon days after listening to it.
Where other "modern" "black metal" bands fail, Phantom succeeds. Perhaps a bit repetitive as far as drumming, but this album "Angel of Disease" sure kicked my ass.
Any bad mood will be increased tenfold when you have this album in your stereo... full of hate, full of atmosphere, and full of demonic madness like no other. "Angel of Disease" is both raw as hell, and cold as death itself.
Angel of Disease score: 100/100.
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