Phantom

Khold plays no-nonsense mid-paced Norwegian black metal with no frills and little variation. Each song pretty much sounds exactly like the last, the vocalist is nothing special, there are maybe four riffs in a song, and my God do they love open chords. Phantom is a perfect storm of elements for an absolutely terrible and dreadfully one-dimensional album. It’s like one long song that occasionally changes up tempos and plods around on the same worn paths that millions (dare I say, billions?!?) of bands have done. Oh yeah, and the lyrics are just bleh. To put it simply: Phantom is boring. Immensely and monumentally boring.

So why do I like it so damn much? Let’s try to break it down, shall we?

ISSUE #1 (The Grim Beginnings!): the production. You know, with a name like Khold, and song titles that constantly reference death, plagues, ghosts, and eternal winters, you would never expect the most accurate adjectives to describe the production to be warm, organic and adorable. But, alas, my dear readers, that is what we have here. The tones are absolutely rich, layered and thick. Like some sort of grim, frostbitten cheesecake, it’s something that ought to make you sick in its decadence, yet you keep biting into it to see what other flavors may surprise you. The bass is warm and full, the guitars are buzzing and incredibly heavy, the drums are padded and earthy (a complete veering from the traditional black metal path) and the vocals are right in your ears. To word it another, more concise way, I’ve never heard a black metal album like this. It sounds more akin to early 90s grunge, or post-rock than black metal.

ISSUE #2 (The Plot Grows Complicated!): The riffs. Here’s where things get a little crazy, the riffs on this album take from every single genre of rock. We have traditional “mid-paced black metal riffs”, you know, the power chords played with the occasional five or six note lead to accent the chorus and blast-beats to fight the monotony (the opener, the title track, “Fra Gra til Morke”). Then we have these extremely strange, almost alt-rock/butt-rock riffs that sound right off of a A Perfect Circle or Chevelle album (“Skjebnevette”, “Døde Fuglers Sang”) that embrace these poppy melodies and odd worn out tropes. Finally, there are these absolutely kick-ass heavy metal riffs that wear their influences on the sleeves (“Hekseformular I Vev” and “Slaktereika”...but seriously, listen to “Hekseformular I Vev” and try not to bang your head. It’s impossible. That riff is just monumental). Somehow, what should sound like a mess seems to flow seamlessly and without effort and without fail, no riff sounds out of place.

ISSUE #3 (A Duel Between Fathers and Sons!): The delivery. Khold makes no qualms about being a thoughtless, heartless riff creating black metal force. There’s no real effort to be something elevated and high-minded, it’s just guys making angry music and having fun and taking the piss. I remember the vocalist interview years ago on why he was on the cover of each album, to which he replied: “Because I am the best looking, and the other band members know that”. There’s just enough serious effort to make some good ol’ down home black metal, but nothing more to create some new gospel. This is not the Deathspell Omega camp, this is the original Mayhem and Darkthrone, pissed-off-and-having-fun-with-it style of black metal, and that’s so refreshing.

FINAL STATEMENT (The Terrible Night!): Phantom is absolutely, without shame and pretention, boring. It is one long riff-fest, with absolutely no variation whatsoever. Yeah, yeah, there’s the occasional blasting section, and here and there are some decent ideas peppered in (the excellent use of pauses in “Slaktereika” just to name one), but for the most part, each song sounds exactly like the last. BUT. And that’s a big but. Khold manages somehow to make this work so damn well. Somehow, they’ve managed to take the most worn out clichés of the genre and turn them on their side just by slowing things down and changing up the production, and instead of jam-packing songs, they allow the riffs to breath and flesh out. Yeah, there are four riffs a song, maybe two in some cases, but they ride them out and milk them for all they’re worth, until the listener is left choking on the nuances. Phantom is baby black metal, adorable in its simplicity, coming off as guys looking up to their heroes. It’s counter-culture these days to be this stripped down, and it comes off far more genuine than Satyricon’s Now Diabolical or Darkthrone’s “punk” efforts.

If I merely described this album as “no-nonsense mid-paced Norwegian black metal” you could’ve gone ahead and wrote it off as shit, but there’s something really special about this incredibly one-sided album. Phantom is boring because you probably won’t remember any particular song after you listen to it, you probably won’t go home and check out the rest of Khold’s discography (hint, you ought to), and you won’t come away from it exhausted and drained emotionally, crying brilliance at the top of your lungs. What you will do is much simpler. You’ll nod your head and smile the whole damn time Phantom is playing; anytime you put it on. That’s a pretty damn hard thing to accomplish.

Obviously, Khold prefer to stay cold and play cold music. I cant see anything bad in that. They are playing slow, groovy riffs with dark, but clean production. They are playing thypical old school black metal with senseable ingredients from old heroes like Darkthrone and Mayhem. The guitar riffs are more than acceptable, in fact some of them are outstanding in the genre, but I will dare to claim that the drums are a bit too low and that makes it a bit monotonus. The bass sound is way better than I thought and gives the enitirety a good picture. For the first time I heard them, Khold unexpectly managed to create an atmosphere that strikes many of my earlier experiences with black metal.

The vocals performed by Gard are as always brilliantly vicious and gives you a gloomy feeling creeping down your spine. This is of course a positive monument in black metal, so I will not say I despise it, on the contrary I love it.

Khold has always had a fifth member under thee pseudonym, Hildr. His work in the band is to write the lyrics, which he does excellently. All lyrics are written in norwegian in an old way to make it even more dark and evil, and though I am a norwegian I had problems understanding a few of them. In the comprehension of mine, the lyrics contain themes like the black death(1349), grimness, evil and sadness.

If you never have heard this band before, I recommend you to experience them live. It will kick your ass and definitely get you interested in their musical appearances and the hard work they are laying behind to achieve their musical efforts.