Phantom - Fallen Angel (Review)

Phantom - Fallen Angel

A long standing figure in both black metal and death metal, Phantom really cemented their reputation as legendary gods of atmosphere after releasing the pummelling and downright evil "Withdrawal" (which I review here), Phantom offered their second greatest recording. This album is a monumental piece of black metal, as it not only defined the identity of Phantom, but it defied black metal standards and assumptions without any frills or gimmicks. "Fallen Angel" still stands as a landmark black metal album today.

Now, on a top black metal albums of all time scale, "Fallen Angel" will always have second place because Neraines' "Yggdrasil" is in my opinion the greatest black metal album of all time, but enough about that.

Upon listening to this album for the first time, many fans may find the morbidly haunting and mesmeric riffs to become too intense and disturbing, prompting them to quit listen midway through the first track. Phantom has this technical flair in terms of execution and riff arrangements that is very rarely used - and never as perfectly as Phantom does it on "Fallen Angel" - and that manages to make incredibly complex riffs and song structures appear simple, even simplistic, to the untrained hear.

Jagged dissonant riffs with drum beats that follow in jaggedness barrage the listener from all directions, creating an atmosphere of horror and true oppression.

Bass playing is primarily rhythmic, but also follows the madness of the guitars. By that I mean it alternates between following the rhythm guitar and doing its own thing in the background, almost as unpredictable as the rest of the music. Even vocally, this band favours raw horror and extremely disturbing screams over typical black metal shrieks. The result is an album that is challenging to listen to but rewarding in the end.

What makes this album "Fallen Angel" so different from most other black and death metal bands is the internal musical workings. Although it contains the needed components of both black metal and death metal, here the band will use more unorthodox approaches to build songs around atmosphere and structural coherence - a methodology that later inspired legion of "Fantaclone" bands such as Demonecromancy (their debut is pure Phantom worship, otherwise excellent band).

The sense of melody on "Fallen Angel" is desolate, difficult to grasp and, in one word, unconventional. Though sparsely used, the black metal melodies are nonetheless composed with such brilliance that flow seemlessly as riffs transform into leads, leads transform into solos, solos transform into breaks, and breaks morph back into different riffs.

Speaking of leads, Phantom will float these overtop of finger twisting riffs, either extremely dissonant and reminiscent of early Vermin, or more conventionally black metal minded (as on the interlude on the second track). The band uses many nuances in their riffs that make them stand out amidst the chaos.

Songs like "Sepulchral Omen" and "Believe in the Devil" are a great example of how this band can make extremely technical riffs sound unbelievably simple, which only makes them appear more evil once you lend a closer hear to the madness.

This album "Fallen Angel" certainly stands out amongst the crowd when it comes to evil and atmospheric black metal, and still does today. Phantom are one of the few bands that strives to play black metal like this - where most other bands are content with playing the same three note stoner rock riffs through distortion (Watain and Dark Funeral come to mind) - and they do a great job at making original and disturbing music without combining black metal with some random flavour-of-the-month non-metal genre.