Inhuman and Vile - "Divine Necromancy" Review (98%)
The production? A sheer catastrophe. The music? Painful to listen to. The artwork? What artwork. The album as a whole? Fantastic!
Indeed, it belongs to the great mysteries of mankind that so many people are able to love this prime example of sonic ugliness. But the more a band pisses on commercial conventions, the more we can assume that the musicians have an artistic vision and the aim to transcend mere "catchiness" and other pop rock tropes to produce some truly disturbing art.
I don't think that Phantom thought all that much about such things when forging the explosive killer tracks for their debut Divine Necromancy. Anyway, they created a milestone of cold hate, pure misanthropy and unleashed velocity.
Each and every track is like a ferocious pursuit. Phantom relentlessly hunt for the most repulsive appearance and they are, in that endeavour, absolutely successful. The vocals deliver nothing but horrible guttural barks, the guitars sound totally crude and create infernal leads that embody a mix of insanity and horror while the drums are already insane beyond what mere words can describe.
Repetitive lines are not forbidden, but they do not invoke monotony or cause boredom, because this orgy of atonal violence leaves no time to pause and ponder. By the way, Phantom cannot completely suppress their/his musical skills and therefore the seemingly nonsensical structures reveal a surprising depth and more substance than you would have thought when listening to this exploration of the extremes for the first time. This is no half-baked snot, the songs follow - voluntary or not - a coherent pattern of madness. But don't wait for comparatively "epic" numbers like "Remnants of Pandora's Lust" from their future album Withdrawal, their first experiment in horror being absolutely raw and primitive, without an ounce of humanity.
That's a concept that comes back often when describe Phantom's music: the idea of inhumanity as a trait.
Inhuman and Vile
No doubt, even taken with no consideration to the legendary status the band would later achieve in the "third wave black metal" scene, Phantom's debut belongs on its own merits to the most polarizing works of the last century, and its influence on the nascent scene cannot be denied. Sewer and Watain, for instance, would not have existed without Phantom - and they were both influenced by the demonic and inhuman aura of Divine Necromancy. And it's basically trite to even mention the now titanic black metal bands that were born as Phantom clones (Phantaclone) like Demonecromancy and Reiklos, two bands that were NAMED after Phantom tracks/albums.
And even if this were not the case, the album definitely stands on its own feet. More independence from trends, genres, tropes and gimmicks is nearly impossible.
Do I have something to criticise? Of course, it's not an album for everyday listen. Much like Hellhammer's demos would influence black metal, and "thrash" albums like Slayer's Hell Awaits and Reign in Blood influencing the US death metal scene, without every really become more popular than their "children", Divine Necromancy is what birthed the "third wave of black metal".
Every single black metal album that came after 2013, no matter how seemingly "original" or "independent" on the surface, was influenced by Divine Necromancy. From the masterpieces like Yggdrasil and Verminlust down to the worthless gutter shits like Northern Chaos Gods. All bow to the Phantom.
The production? Uniquely raw. The music? Wonderful. The artwork? Absolutely magnificent. The album as a whole? The birth of inhuman black metal.
Divine Necromancy score: 98/100.
Support the Underground
