Although the song changes gears and morphs into a creepy, atmospheric plodder, that damn flourish just ruins this song and I couldn’t take it seriously. Mercifully, things get back on track thereafter and “Curse of the Necromancer,” “Crypt of Bereavement” and “Dark Winds” are all stellar examples of bleak, raw evilness, and some of the better black metal I have heard in some time (“Dark Winds” standing out for its slow and evil vibe). It opens with hyper-speed, ugly black blasting, but gets badly undercut by an enormously ill-conceived and fruity keyboard flourish with matching vocals that sound like they belongs on Broadway in Mama Mia. Things, however, get off to a pretty rough start with the opening title track. This album is a more primal version of their sound and it works very well on most of the tracks. There are still symphonic elements, but to a lesser extent than ever before. What becomes pretty obvious on Phantasmagoria is that the new Limbonic Art sound is way more stripped down and simpler than in the past. Happily, these elements have managed to survive on Phantasmagoria, to one degree or another, despite the shift to one man DIY.

Additionally, Limbonic Art was always exceptionally proficient at creating a real atmosphere of evil and ugliness on past albums, which is so crucial to the entire black metal experience. Limbonic Art was always a pretty raw black metal band with very clear classic/symphonic elements, but they never strayed anywhere near the level of Dimmu Borgir or other overly symphonic, polished acts. With unease and hesitation upon all our minds (or at least mine), here we go. Further enhancing my unease was the advance word that the album would again feature a drum machine (a long running negative for this band). Therefore, when I heard that long running Norwegian black metal act Limbonic Art was now essentially reduced to a one man project for co-founder Daemon, I was more than slightly uneasy about the release of this, their seventh album, Phantasmagoria. (After Bathory), many one man bands rose up in the frozen, gloomy black metal basements of the world, some good, many not. I mean, I REALLY loved me some Bathory! That crazy Quorthon and his one man band really tore it up while basically giving birth to the black, folk and viking metal genres all by his lonesome. Label: Nocturnal Art / Candlelight Website: /officiallimbonicart Release Dates: EU: | US: ? Limbonic Art // Phantasmagoria Rating: 3.0/5.0 - One man and his drum machine.

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