ALBUM REVIEW: Purgatory – Phasma
According to Catholic doctrine, purgatory is where souls undergo purification through temporary suffering before reaching heaven. Greek quartet PHASMA’s third album Purgatory literalises this concept as 26 minutes of blackened death metal torment that’s somehow strangely, compulsively enjoyable. This is musical purgatory: you’ll suffer, but you’ll want to keep suffering, too.
Nearly 15 minutes shorter than 2022’s Epiales and their leanest statement yet, Purgatory uses every second to devastating effect. The evolution is immediately apparent: this is musically darker, dingier, and more dissonant than anything PHASMA have attempted before. Opener I establishes the purification process with a riff drowning in atmospheric reverb before the catatonic rhythm section (George Markantonis‘ bludgeoning basslines and Bill Nanos‘ world-ending drums) drags listeners down into the depths.
What follows is pure genre-melding chaos: dissonant black metal riffs explode into death metal territory whilst vocalist Luis Ferre delivers guttural growls filled with the fury of LORNA SHORE and PALEFACE SWISS. Don’t forget the stomping groove driven by thundering basslines that shouldn’t work alongside these disparate elements, but absolutely does. PHASMA sounds like someone woke up with a hangover, chucked LORNA SHORE, SLIPKNOT, and SPECTRAL WOUND into a blender and gulped it down as nightmare fuel. The punishment continues with a melodeath-rich solo before everything grows dissonant and downtuned again—the devil letting you have your fun before dragging you straight back down.
Listening to Purgatory is to hear a band who refuse to colour inside the lines of genre conventions, choosing to throw every pot of paint at the wall to create something abstract and post-modern. This abstract approach defines the entire album. II wages war with battering ram blastbeats and suffocating basslines whilst Jason Athanasiadis‘ guitars shift between black metal dissonance and melodic death metal richness. Ferre’s snarling growl feels like he’s biting into skin, grinding down flesh bite-by-bite. The suffering intensifies on III, which feels like LAMP OF MURMUUR and DYING FETUS shooting friendly fire at each other. Chugging guitars drive neck-snapping grooves that wouldn’t feel out of place on a LAMB OF GOD record, its blackened groove metal switching halfway into heavier territory with tribal drums and distorted power solos.
The album’s brevity ensures the torment never becomes tedious. Shortest track IV soundtracks the downfall of humanity with incendiary drums and thunderous basslines whilst melodic riffs evoke the icy burning sensation of nerve damage. Heaviest cut V opens with distortion-drenched sludge before slipping into doom-leaning interludes, Markantonis‘ suffocating bass throbbing with anguish. The dissonantly melodic guitar work creates a carousel of distorted riffs that rises and falls with demonic tendencies, perfectly replicating the feeling of being trapped in purgatory itself, languishing without hope of escape.
Closer VI completes the purification with acoustic strumming before battering blastbeats return, Ferre whispering like a spectre. The track fades to church organ, souls finally making satisfaction for past sins, or perhaps languishing in hell for all eternity.
PHASMA have mastered an unlikely paradox: making torment enjoyable. By trimming the fat from their runtime and dialling up the darkness, they’ve crafted their most focused work yet. Purgatory is deliciously dark, infectiously groovy, and downright fun. 26 minutes that prove suffering doesn’t have to feel like punishment.
Rating: 8/10
Purgatory is set for release on February 20th via Transcending Obscurity Records.
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