Phantom Fire The Bust Of Beelzebub

Highly anticipated debut album from Phantom Fire! It was but May 2021 when a brand-new entity burst from Bergen, Norway, bearing the all-too-apropos moniker Phantom Fire. With members hailing from such bands as Gaahls Wyrd and Krakow, the duo surprisingly went a different route with their debut EP, Return of the Goat. Hard-rocking, hard-charging, reeking of rust and diesel, Phantom Fire proved they were their own band removed from any sort of lineal references. Better yet, perhaps, they were just getting started and already promised a debut full-length... That debut album is finally here: The Bust of Beelzebub! Flexing the same chops and some new ones, Phantom Fire's first full-length salaciously spans pitch-black speed metal and moody epic metal alike, all of it in (evil) obeisance to timeless Heavy Metal magic. Years ahead of the game, The Bust of Beelzebub bears an ageless wisdom across it's succinct seven-song/29-minute runtime, like Aura Noir jamming out on some Cirith Ungol covers or early Omen getting turned onto the Swedish Cranium! Nevertheless, some interesting twists crop up in the most unselfconscious ways, like the spattering of spiralling psychedelic guitar or solemn Viking-dirge acoustics, altogether making for a wild ride across the hinterlands of the frozen Norwegian tundra...all before it's lit afire! With stout and richly analogue recording courtesy of Iver Sandøy (Enslaved) at Solslottet Studio in Bergen and deliciously warped cover art by Nifelheim's Hellbutcher, Phantom Fire's The Bust of Beelzebub is an exceptionally unique take on the traditional.