Back in the symphonic black heyday of the mid to late 90s, Norway’s Limbonic Art released three albums in a highly pompous, gothic, orchestral style: Moon in the Scorpio, In Abhorrence Dementia and Epitome of Illusions. 1999’s Ad Noctum: Dynasty of Death and its follow-up, The Ultimate Death Worship, switched up the Limbonic Art sound to a more ferocious, blistering attack, with the orchestral grandeur more subdued on both releases. So I was pleased when Legacy of Evil hit in 2007, as it brought that baroque layering more towards the forefront, even if it seemed like fast, guitar-oriented compositions were the band’s permanent focus now.

Phantasmagoria stays with that blazing, hyperspeed direction – it’s 71 minutes of buzzing onslaught and dark gothic melody – but there’s a significant change here. As of 2009, Limbonic Art is now down to a one-man project, as Morfeus has left over “cooperation problems” (according to the band’s website). And that means that most of the baroque symphonics – long the cornerstone of Limbonic Art’s identity – have been suppressed once again, leaving a much more straightforward – but no less epic – black metal sound.

Tracks like “Portal to the Unknown,” “Flight of the Mind’s Eye” and “The Burning Vortex” employ relentless pacing atop demonic atmosphere to nail a powerful, archetypal black metal aesthetic. A few tracks like “Crypt of Bereavement” and “Curse of the Necromancer” use even thrashier riffs as their backbones, while a slow, doomy march like “Dark Winds” is perfectly placed to break up the firestorm. Daemon’s vocals also sound better than ever – the perfect mix of rasp and growl – and his clean, choral vocals, when present, are mixed in with the black to achieve a greater sense of dread and grandeur than Morfeus could ever achieve with his awful caterwauling (seriously, go back and listen to most of In Abhorrence Dementia again – abhorrent is right).

Of course, there’s still orchestration on every track  – wouldn’t be Limbonic Art without it – but it’s thicker, darker, more funereal, with much less of the tinkly keyboards and burbling Danny Elfman-esque whimsy that have been present on every album until now. And it’s a notable improvement. Daemon almost universally uses the keys in one-to-one lockstep with the guitar melodies, and while it’s a simple (albeit repetitive) approach, it does unify the songs a lot more. The orchestration is now part of the song, as opposed to just flourishes and frills. And while there was a time when I was a sucker for that stuff (and done well, with a proper orchestra or a great library of samples, I still am), it all too frequently plays as embarrassing cheese when I hear it now. Even moments of Legacy of Evil, which is otherwise a terrific release, still grate on me with prancy keys or spooky choirs whoo-whoo-whooing up from the background.

There’s still a problem here though, and it’s the same thing that’s plagued almost every Limbonic Art album so far: their songs are just way too long, repetitive and largely interchangeable. I had the album on repeat for several hours while slaughtering Voidwalkers and Razorfangs on the Hellfire Peninsula (if you’re not a WoW geek, it’s an astral warzone that perfectly matches the Limbonic Art mystique), and it was amazing background music. And that says it all. As a longtime fan, it’s frustrating that these songs frequently drop into the background – even when I’m not focused on something else. Had Daemon and Morfeus (or just Daemon now) taken the ambitious, orchestral grandeur of those first few albums and melded it with the newer, speedier sound  to create epic compositions – rather than just always treating the symphonics as a background layer – we might have gotten more interesting and structurally varied songs.

In fact, I think Legacy of Evil has better songwriting overall – crunchier riffs and more breaks and dynamics, even the occasional solo melody rising above the storm – but given what I said earlier about its sometimes goopy orchestration, I think I’ll be playing Phantasmagoria more often. It just sounds completely badass, and while my attention may drift from time to time, at least I won’t wince even once.

As for the future of Limbonic Art, let’s hope that Daemon continues on, either on his own or with new collaborators. And while it may not be fair to expect every band to become more progressive or more complex with age, I’m still hoping that one day we’ll get some truly inspiring compositions from him. (Think Emperor‘s Anthems to the Welkin at Dusk or Blut Aus Nord‘s Memoria Vetusta II, pretty much the pinnacles of the genre for me.) He’s finally nailed the right sound, but I think the Art can still be pushed further.

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