Exmortem - Funeral Phantoms

I’ve heard a lot of good releases all of this time, but not a lot of death releases. Although I believe that Exmortem’s latest releases is something different. I thought that they were inactive, since I didn’t heard or read anything about them since they released "Berzerker Legions" seven years ago, but considering that they’re from Denmark, and they were kinda underground back then, it’s no wonder why i didn’t hear from them all this time. Moving on.

Funeral Phantoms has to be the bastard child of Immolation’s Unholy Cult and Morbid Angel’s Gateways To Annihilation, but to me, it sounds better than those albums. It has that dark vibe associated with bands like Immolation, Incantation, Morbid Angel, and Gorguts that’s been missing from Death Metal lately (thanks to nu-metal bands claiming to be Death Metal, or bands that are too focused on technique rather than songwriting), which is a plus in this genre. Also, the music is heavy, really heavy. The first song, Black Opium, starts so slow and heavy, that it puts all those " funeral doom" bands to shame. I haven’t heard a song this heavy since Gorguts’ Elusive Treasures. Believe me, is that good. But not every song is slow, although the album maintains a mid paced flow, it has it’s blasting moments (Souls Of Tyrants, Salvation). Those faster songs remind me of Morbid Angel in terms of melody and overall mood. Sure, they guys have some bizarre tempos and crazy riffs, but it all adds to the music rather than " hey, look how many notes I can play per riff" . Speaking of Salvation, that song has some very weird sounding riffs that will drive you crazy if you’re into Immolation and latter day Gorguts. I keep mentioning those bands because their sound reminds me of them, although they do have their own aggressive, punishing sound, but they know how to use their influences. 

It’s not breakdown heavy, and it doesn’t need to, since their heavy sound comes from their dissonant, brooding sound and fucking unbelievable songwriting skills. And it’s nice to see a band using that kind of sound nowadays, when every one’s putting way too much breakdowns into their songs to compensate for the lack of metal in their music.