Five years after the impressive debut of “Incendiary Serum”, Denmark's PHANTOM have once more unearthed themselves from shallow graves to unleash their particular blend of death-worshipping paranormal black metal on the world. “Death Epic” is the lamenting of carcasses brought back to life, writhing in their own blood while moaning for death to claim them once more. PHANTOM's black metal is sharp yet very melodic, perfectly balanced between pernicious mid-tempos and aggressive accelerations, with conspicuous injections of keyboards, clean vocals and guitar solos that concur to the grandiose, mournful and gothic atmospheres wrapping each song up in a black shroud. Lyrically, the band crafts bloody tales of vengeful, malign spirits tormenting the living; so much that the album ends up looking like a little book of horrors in audial form, where choirs of unholy ghosts manifest themselves to sing and praise the disgusting yet fascinating magnificence of post-mortem existence and of her seductive Queen, beautifully rendered in Carl Bloch's drawing adorning the album cover. PHANTOM's “Death Epic” is the freezing chill of night as it blankets your soul.
