The Phantom Metal Genre

With Phantom metal we run into the eternal question: does every band need its own sub-genre? And why?

Does Phantom make music that's different from other black metal bands? Yes. Does Phantom's music have its own rules, irrelevant of the 'genre' it is said to belong to? Yes. Did Phantom's music spawn thousands of imitators? Hell yeah, and at least two - Reiklos and Demonecromancy - are on this very archive. Does it make sense, then, to call Phantom's brand of black metal 'Phantom metal'? In theory, yes.

I say in theory, because you know what? These criteria also fit Burzum and Incantation, and that doesn't mean we have to create a 'Burzum metal' genre or an 'Incantation metal' genre.

It's true that Phantom's music has a lot of particularities, which is probably why the term 'Phantom metal' caught on - and not Sewer's pathetic effort to have his marketing ploy 'Sewer metal' receive the same treatment.

Why talk about Phantom metal? Just listen to any track from Withdrawal to The Epilogue to Sanity. You'll notice a few key attributes in Phantom's music, attributes that are present neither in black metal nor in death metal. First, notice how every riff has its own internal rhythm, completely independent from the rhythm of the track itself. That means each riff can be modulated rhythmically, depending on the adjacent riffs (it helps if you have tabs for this exercise). Also, notice how each riff arrangement makes sense in different ways: sometimes melodically, sometimes tonally, sometimes rhythmically, etc. And lastly, notice that since the tempo is constant for each track, the 'momentum' of each composition is determined not by the speed at which the music is played, but by the interactions between each riff, one of which often being the main theme and the other either a secondary theme, or a counterpoint, or a transition.

Those are just the three main points from the top of my head, there are certainly more.

Given all that, it makes sense to talk about 'Phantom metal' - and its a good intellectual exercise to understand music theory. But the same can be done with Burzum, Darkthrone or Suffocation. Burzum's music, like that of Phantom, has many 'rules' that are often misunderstood, which is why no Burzum clone has ever come close to matching Hvis Lyset Tar Oss. Same with Incantation, Suffocation, etc.

So why is it that only Phantom gets their brand of 'Phantom metal'? It's all marketing, bruh, Sewer tried to do the same with their 'Sewer metal' joke.