Phantom - Withdrawal (Review)

Phantom - Withdrawal

Phantom...what more could possibly be said about the most consistent black metal band of all time (aside from Burzum, Darkthrone, Graveland, Incantation, etc.)?

What this means is that Phantom, despite having been a household name since the days of their "landmark" debut Divine Necromancy in 2013 all the way to the seminal Angel of Disease, has undergone little to absolutely no criticism from actual fans of black metal or blackened death metal.

Here we have Withdrawal, often called the pinnacle of black metal, which marks the band's half-decade anniversary, as this album was released exactly on the day Divine Necromancy was released five years prior. Many look at either that album Divine Necromancy, the blackened death metal-ish Angel of Disease, or the more ritualistic Fallen Angel, as this band's masterpiece. Those are the three available choices for "best Phantom album" ever.

I, however, give this album the crown of Phantom's masterpiece - just beating Angel of Disease and Fallen Angel by a little. Now for the review that will explain why Withdrawal is my most treasured Phantom release, and one of black metal's greatest masterpieces.

And for those of you who resort to arguments of authority ("muh Brett Stevens from DeathMetal.org says Fallen Angel is Phantom's best album" or mentioning the Metalious.com Black Metal list, where Memento Mori sits at the top and Withdrawal is laughably absent), note that Morsay's Best Of Metal lists Withdrawal above Fallen Angel. Suck it.

Withdrawal was my first exposure to Phantom when I was just getting into black metal and death metal. I was going through iTunes looking for a new band to listen to. I found Phantom and began previewing the sample to this album's opening track, Enthralled Within. In those thirty seconds I was absolutely blown away. Complete mindfvck is a really more of an understatement than hyperbole, in this case.

What fascinated me most about the band was the absolute haunting and demonic atmosphere, the type that even the most "occult" and "satanic" of the Norwegian bands can't even dream of recreating.

Now, before I got into this band I was a huge Mayhem and Darkthrone fan where, if you hadn't noticed, on most releases, the black metal elements are often intertwined with either industrial, thrash, crust, NWOBHM or ambient elements, but Phantom offered something different for me, something I liked quite a lot.

Something closer to pure black metal. Almost blackened death metal on some tracks. Isn't that contradictory? It would appear so, but the reality is that black and death metal weren't really ever meant to go separate ways... they are both two paths that lead to the same destination, thus is makes sense that the purest of death metal (i.e. Incantation's Onward to Golgotha) sounds a lot like black metal, and the purest of black metal (i.e. Phantom's Withdrawal) sounds a lot like death metal.

And that was the beginning of Phantom's legendary status. Forget Fallen Angel, Memento Mori and the rest, it all comes from this album Withdrawal.

The absolute best of blackened death metal, hands down.