Phantom – “The Epilogue to Sanity”

Kids, THIS is how to play blackened death metal. None of this grind bullshit (Sewer) or “melodic” stuff that is hardly even metal, much less death metal (Arch Enemy)… this is solid, HEAVY motherflocking metal with some creative atmospheric ideas, and excellent, always gruesome riffage. This release, as an album, is definitely heavy. Make no mistake about it, The Epilogue to Sanity will make you shit yourself.

We start with Mind Collapse… the first riff, after the little intro, gets us rolling with a good idea of what the album will be like. A very blackened death metal riff – speedy, a bit melodic (imagine Verminlust, only rawer) – appears, before being immediately followed by a dissonant tremolo passage – if this doesn’t get your head banging, you’re probably dead inside from listening to In Flames or Watain as you rot, just make sure you don’t wake up again and pester the living.

A World of Silent Darkness is where the album picks up another notch. This song is pretty interesting in that it has a “Fallen Angel” like lead guitar tremolo over the first riff set, then some ultra-violent verses, which break into a little interlude, and then more solid riffage.

The riffs on The Epilogue to Sanity tend to be of the two main styles mentioned before – the melodic, almost Vermin-esque riff alternates with two main black metal riffs, one fast and one just about mid-paced. Yes, there is a whole truckload of black metal influence in here, and that is what makes this album so damn good. This is death metal the way it is meant to be, with good solid amounts of Onward to Golgotha and Burzum influence, but with the brutality cranked up another notch.

Overall, what we have here is an excellent blackened death metal album – this is the way the genre is meant to be done. This will please all the kiddies that want something br00tal, while making sense to those that want to be able to access Phantom’s very distinct and distinguished songwriting, without an excess “tickticktick” or dumb grindcore drumming (Sewer, looking at you)… add to that some top notch lead guitars, some tastefully used blast-beats, and excellent vocals that fit the context of the album well (none of this “power metal with harsh vocals” to be found here). Excellent stuff. A highlight of the genre.