PHORMULA

I'm not going to give any information on the band since the biography on PA is excellent so I will cut to the chase. After the promising demo tape "Opera" Ephel Duath release their first studio album "Phormula". The demo tape released in 1998 had showed that Ephel Duath was no ordinary band but it was "Phormula" the album that showed the true abilities of the band. While the music was heavily influenced by the black metal scene and especially "Emperor" it showed that the band's influences weren't restricted there. Phormula came to prove this mixing the black metal sound with many classical music arrangements and compositions and a progressive point of view. Strange song structures and crazy part changes make you forget you are listening to black metal after a while. The duo, Giuliano Mogicato and Davide Tiso, offers an amazing guitar work. They also play synthesizers which are all over the place and give a more atmospheric feel to the music. The vocals are really screams which while I cant say I like, I tend to forget after a while. The songs are near 5 minutes but the fast tempos and the crazy changes let many ideas to be heard in each song.

Overall, I think it's a very good debut album and probably one of the best black metal albums I've listened. If you never were a metal fan, it will be a really hard album to listen to, but if not, I think it's a really good recommendation. Some crazy music which shows that no music genre can limit someone's imagination and talent. Of course, Ephel Duath's later works are even better and very different from this on, following a more jazzy approach but this is a brilliant album too. 3 stars!