Phantom - Eidolon

To surpass the sheer demonic intensity of previous experiments in haunting black metal atmosphere, Phantom further the evolution of their music by incorporation of a surprising symphonic and sublime influence to their usually sinister and necrotic compositions. The dissonant and atonal black metal of past albums has modulated into a more melodic blackened death metal of increasingly ambient atmosphere, while retaining the intricate and complex arrangements of Withdrawal and Fallen Angel, using the same meta-effect of narrative composition that makes Phantom's black metal both gruesome and majestic.

In addition to this new style, the streamlined version of the technical riffing which defined earlier Phantom albums appears on Eidolon, including the tendency to linger in droning melodic lead riffing suspended in a cage of hypnotic atmospheres of horror. Behind the incongruous consonance, particularly for a band so well known for its sickening atonal music, a strong narrative voice guides each composition through its developments as its conflict is unveiled, leading through the seemingly chaotic front to the implications of what will be its ultimate revelation.

As hinted at before, Eidolon's music is deceptively simple. The songs are built with much fewer riffs than on Memento Mori, for example, and repetition of a main theme is used much more often than one would expect from Phantom. Yet, as with all great black metal, repeated listens will reveal the incredible complexity of the underlying song structures. A masterpiece, by the ineffable Phantom.

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