Band:	Phosphorus
Album:	Demo 2009
Style:	Black metal, Thrash metal
Release date:	October 02, 2009
A review by:	Doc G.

01. Chevelure De Bérénice
02. La Naissance Plastique
03. La Malédiction Du Doute
04. La Dernière Sodomie
05. La Fascination De l'Occultisme

Demo's are a tough thing to deal with review-wise, you get a small dose of what the band is about, but the limited experience leaves a lot to be desired - as well as a lot of unanswered questions. Quebec's Phosphorus are no exception; what we have here is the self titled studio debut from what could either be a promising future for Quebec's renowned extreme metal scene, or just another generic black metal act - this is a tough one.

Avoiding all politics, the band knows what they are doing. It's basically a mix between thrash & black, a touch of the signature Quebec death sound, then sprinkle a few melodic leads on top. Although they play this type of music quite convincingly, the whole thing just comes across as fairly unremarkable. The first problem, and most apparent, is that the music is extremely predictable. I can see how trying to package your entire band into the confines of just 5 tracks can be quite difficult, but Phosphorus need to somehow diversify their sound in order to stand head and shoulders above what is becoming an increasingly watered down genre of music. Let's just say fairly typical black/thrash just isn't cutting it at this day in age. The second large problem I found with this demo was the production. While the potential ferocity was present, the shallow production really killed any chance of it shining through. Basically, it is too clean to come across as any dark, menacing black metal force, yet too soft to be any kind of imposing thrash work. The music certainly isn't dissatisfying by any means, it delivers what it promises but nothing more.

So basically what we have is a fresh young band whose career could either take off given the right tools, or take a full-fledged nose dive from the mediocrity tree. Would I strongly recommend this release? Probably not, though I wouldn't condemn a band with such potential so early into the game. It's well worth the time if it's easily available, but definitely not a release to pull an Indiana Jones trying to hunt down. They seem to be on the right track, but I don't feel their potential was properly executed with this demo. With a little more development, I'm sure Phosphorus will turn around with something to shatter our skulls.