Phalanx Inferno - The Age of Anti-Aquarius

PHALANX INFERNO - The Age of Anti-Aquarius (GODZ OV WAR - CD 2020)

How do they do it? How can some of these labels bring us so many exciting new bands every month? And so many cool releases? Is there an end to this madness? On one hand, I would like to say NO, hoping for more and more. But then on the other hand you can't get everything and all of a sudden you realize how much great music is yet to be discovered. And day is still just 24 hours long. Short rather. Anyways, Godz ov War Productions did deliver some of these new, but exciting debuts recently and I have to say that Phalanx Inferno is one of my favourites and strongest releases from this label. What this band did on "The Age of Anti-Aquarius" EP may not be the most grounbreaking and memorable effort ever. But damn, it just ticks all (or nearly all) boxes for what I love about death metal. The only thing it misses are probably crushing doomy parts or eerie melodies. But let's leave them to more European sounding bands. Phalanx Inferno is more rooted in the classic US sound, from the fuckin Florida and the Morbid gods... Don't tell me more, I am ready for the bloodshed. 

And bloodshed I get. Love the riffage here. It is clear what bands have influenced Phalanx Inferno, but I have to say that they managed to come up with a bit more original approach to this music, you would never say that they are "copy-paste" type of band. Music is filled with viciousness, dark, evil aura, which sometimes reminds me even such Acheron. Also, vocals are somewhere between D.Vincent and V.Crowley. Music is fast, aggressive, dynamic, it is very varied and relatively memorable, it doesn't focus on being the most brutal, but rather on creating a dark, sinister aura. Which is what I like. More so, Phalanx Inferno came up with excellent production. I love that organic, warm sound and how it combines harshness and aggression with relative cleanness, making every part sound powerful and aggressive, but not dull and unlistenable. 

There are just five songs, one of which is a very well done and played their own way Celtic Frost cover (“Jewel Throne”). They even did a potential suicide with “Pride...Carnality...Enlightenment”, a six minutes long instrumental piece... Quite brave thing for this sort of music, but you just don’t even notice lack of vocals in it, which is something cool, I think. All in all, this is a great debut and once again I have to say that I can’t wait to hear more from this band. There's something amazing in the horizon. 

Verdict: 85/100