PHOBOCOSM
PHOBOCOSM “Foreordained”
By Dr. Abner Mality
Montreal is a pretty cold and dark place in winter, but PHOBOCOSM is coming from a place even colder and darker than their hometown. This is a lightless, mechanical kind of death metal that gradually grinds you down until the darkness is a part of you. Imagine death metal created by the Borg and it would be close to PHOBOCOSM, I think.
That doesn’t necessarily mean this is an industrial death album...although there are certainly touches of that. Doom plays a good part in the vibe here, but there’s enough blasting speed to disqualify it for the death-doom tag. It just lumbers steadily forth like a robot tank plowing through heavy snow, occasionally firing a fiery blast. Icy dissonance and relentlessly roaring vocals provide the final touches to “Foreordained”, which is said to deal with the inevitability of death even for the universe itself. Lots of laughs here for sure…
Songs range from the clipped and brutal “Premonition” to the over ten minute soul eraser “Primal Dread”. Most tracks are squarely in the middle of those two length wise. Hard to pick out a standout tune, but I’d say “Everlasting Void” is just a merciless grinding behemoth that sums up everything about this band. Think of a mash-up between GORGUTS, the gloomier INCANTATION and even a bit of old GODFLESH and you’ve got an idea of what PHOBOCOSM is like.