Band:	Limbonic Art
Album:	Phantasmagoria
Style:	Black metal, Symphonic black metal
Release date:	July 19, 2010
Guest review by:	Tiago Rocha

01. Prologue / Phantasmagoria
02. Crypt Of Bereavement
03. Curse Of The Necromancer
04. Portal To The Unknown
05. Dark Winds
06. A World In Pandemonium
07. Flight Of The Minds Eye
08. Apocalyptic Manifestation
09. Prophetic Dreams
10. The Burning Vortex
11. A Black Sphere Of Serenity
12. Astral Projection

After six years connected to Samoth's Nocturnal Art Productions, 2010 sees Limbonic Art's second attempt through Candlelight Records, the seventh full-length so far. Now, Daemon cast all time band mate Morfeus out of the band and carried on as a one-man project. Apparently, the multi-instrumentalist lost, as he states, all ''spiritual connection'' with the ex-partner, and all live appearances are also definitely out of the question for the future. Working in both Limbonic Art and Sarcoma Inc. projects, Daemon set himself in solitude to write the new opus. Phantasmagoria surfaces as the first work ever without Morfeus, the onset of what Daemon calls The Daemonic Era.

Like a flashlight projecting rear motion scary blurry images onto a wall, Phantasmagoria is baffling. Unlike previous albums, all symphonic elements now lay low as almost mere backing sound, there's almost no variation in this field which in some songs falls smoother and uninspired, but in other tracks, it actually works fine without complex synths. Departing a bit from that fancy traditional sound, this is the least symphonic record so far, nodding to pure black metal from the second wave, a bit.

The guitar work often bumps into repetition, it's quite hard to realize if it's the guitars or the synths who drive the music forth, but the filthy riffs and the fast programmed drumming could very much be responsible for Phantasmagoria being, most likely, Limbonic Art's heaviest so far.

Flinging us to delusion through fast tempos, akin to the mysticism present in the lyrics filled with entities, dismal spectres, and silhouette reveries, the music and ambiance combine perfectly turning Phantasmagoria in a ghastly ambient winner. ''Crypt Of Bereavement'' pictures souls marching towards damnation; ''Dark Winds'' is a funeral taken over by a church organ; ''A World In Pandemonium'' emerges as a psy-trance tornado led by fast drumming and heavy riffs ripping off everything in its path; and the warping ''Apocalyptic Manifestation'' is a superb, furious, head-banger of a song.

The chosen production may not suit all tracks' standards (the bass seems a bit suppressed here and there, specially in the faster ones) but it doesn't blemish them either. Lengthy song structures, which allied to a somewhat uninspired guitar work, asks for a lot of patience from the listener, not spicing things up, towing Phantasmagoria by its separate good tracks rather than sparkling as a whole. On the other hand, it's actually a challenge, as in every spin one gets to discover new elements from a collection of tracks that, inevitably, ends up hard to digest. Such contradiction doesn't seem arousing, as it will take a lot of spins to glimpse and fully understand what Daemon did here.

Phantasmagoria clearly shows the sound shifting induced by the line-up ''change''. Confusing but bold, this different approach to Limbonic Art's black metal pronounces an inquiring interest in what Daemon intends the next record to sound like, hopefully, not falling behind into astray, or cloaked out on cocky sticks-and-stones driven attitudes as far as working all alone is concerned, rather than clearing out ideas and bringing in a more reliable work.