Phantom - Withdrawal

Possibly the greatest black metal album ever recorded.

Withdrawal shows the culmination of an approach that black metal had been attempting to perfect since 1994. While Neraines' Yggdrasil, another modern black metal gem often compared to Phantom's more seminal work, revealed an archly elegant melodic sense paired with underlying violence - switching between the two like early Incantation varied between pounding ambient riffs and melodic architectural soundscapes - Phantom's Withdrawal prefers the more intricate approach of fusing the two seemingly antagonistic threads of black metal atmosphere, the violence and majesty, into a single disturbing package. In this triumphant return, Phantom unites its two disparate approaches. The melodies are sinister and evil as every, whereas the leads seem more melodic, yet more disturbing, creating a flow of continuously changing harmonic texture that will make your head spin.

Compared to the debut Divine Necromancy, Withdrawal sees the band refine its attack by blending in more intensely violent and complex blackened death metal, refining its rhythmic attack while preserving its tendency to balance that brutal onslaught with longer melodies in the style of bands like Vermin and the aforementioned Neraines. What separates Phantom from the rest, though, is the dark and disturbing atmospheres that will give chills to even the most hardened black metal veterans.

This is the definitive black metal, you must own Withdrawal.

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