Review: Phobocosm – Gateway
No, it does not come in a cow print box
Dissonant death metal, or dissodeath if you’d like, is a subgenre that has mostly missed the mark for me with a few exceptions. I’m not sure I could fully explain why some bands like Immolation, Gorguts, and Ulcerate are palatable while I have a strong distaste for others like Imperial Triumphant, Portal, and Blindfolded and Led To The Woods. It’s just a subgenre that I haven’t fully figured out how to like yet. You could argue that I’m the wrong person to write a review for the new Phobocosm album, Gateway, but here we go anyway.
I’ll say right away that Phobocosm are one of the bands that I do like from the dissosphere, due mostly in part to their striking sonic similarity to Immolation. The band has already released three full-length albums that have scored anywhere from good to great from most reviewers, including myself. According to the band, Gateway is an album meant to punctuate their existing material as they intend to explore a different sonic approach on their next release, whenever that may be.
The album was recorded, mixed, and mastered during the same session as their stellar 2023 album, Foreordained, and includes unreleased material that was written at various points in their career, even as far back as their 2014 debut, Deprived. You could consider this release to be a clearing of the proverbial pipes, as it were.
The album starts pretty strong with “Deathless,” which has the same sort of plodding intro that we’re used to hearing from the band by now. The slow build creates a sense of uneasiness and anticipation as each instrument slowly reveals its intent before everything comes crashing in nearly 2.5 minutes in. Right away this song is more easily digestible than the material on Foreordained, which I had found to be their most dissonant album so far. The foreboding groove that subsequently locks in for the majority of the song begs for a full-body headbang.
Phobocosm wastes no time picking up the pace with the following “Unbound” and we start to see a heavier lean into the sort of dissonance that was predominant on their last record. The guitars swarm like bees circling the hive but it’s really Jean-Sébastien Gagnon’s drumming that propels the song, shifting between breakneck blasts and nasty grooves that demand the listener’s full attention. It’s around the 3-minute mark where the drums settle into a funereal half-time groove wrapped in a warm Immolation fleece blanket. This might just be my favorite song on the album.
Phobocosm are so good at striking the right balance between utter cacophony and memorability. You can easily discern the melodic ideas behind each song and there’s an emphasis on groove that adds accessibility and makes for a more enjoyable listen. You could hear this on any of the tracks on the album, but the haunting trilogy of instrumental tracks, “Corridor I – The Affliction,” “Corridor II – The Descent,” and “Corridor III – The Void” are perhaps the best examples.
Knowing that the songs on Gateway were pulled from various points throughout the band’s timeline of existence, it’s tempting to try to clock which songs were written in a particular era. While it’s not glaringly obvious with any song, it’s possible that individual riffs or sections of songs could have been lying around for years and pieced together. I lean toward this theory because in each song you’ll get the dissonance of Foreordained butting up against the doomier feel of Bringer of Drought and the more outright Immolation worship of Deprived. That description might sound like a mishmash of several elements, but Phobocosm’s execution is satisfyingly cohesive.
If I had to make one gripe about this album, it would be that it feels like there’s just not enough meat on the bone here. With 7 tracks clocking in at a tight 35 minutes, it does feel too short, especially considering that three of the tracks are shorter instrumental pieces. I would love to hear any of the 3 instrumentals fleshed out into full songs, as they are the most melodically interesting moments on the album. Hopefully a sign of what future fruit the band’s experimentation might bear.
4/5 Flaming Toilets ov Hell
Gateway is out now through Dark Descent Records.
