{"id":308347,"date":"2025-11-26T15:21:04","date_gmt":"2025-11-26T15:21:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/308347\/"},"modified":"2025-11-26T15:21:04","modified_gmt":"2025-11-26T15:21:04","slug":"phobocosm-gateway-review-angry-metal-guy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/308347\/","title":{"rendered":"Phobocosm – Gateway Review | Angry Metal Guy"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"Well, lookee who just oozed in! Phobocosm, Canada\u2019s infamous cavern creepers and dealers of oppressive death metal, return to shove a lump of revolting slime-scuzz in everyone\u2019s stocking with fourth album, Gateway. When last we heard from them on 2023s Foreordained, they were continuing to tweak and refine their revolting mash-up of Incantation, Immolation, Ulcerate, doom and vaguely pos-metal-y bits with an emphasis on the ominous, unsettling and atonal. When all the gears lock in for Phobocosm, they\u2019re capable of inspiring a real sense of existential dread and unease. They\u2019ve always crafted their music to achieve this effect and conjure dark, unpleasant atmospheres through crushing heaviness. Foreordained nailed the formula, making for a dense, harrowing listen. Gateway mines the same toxic waste pits, searching for the next eldritch nightmare, but takes a somewhat different path there this time. Can they regurgitate as many repellent sounds as before and continue their stellar track record? We\u2019ll need to do some DEEP spelunking to get answers.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s immediately apparent that Phobocosm made some changes at the writing table this time. Instead of burying the listener with 6-7 long-form assaults on your calm, Gateway features only 4 proper songs with 3 interludes stitching them together. Opener \u201cDeathless\u201d sounds just as a Phobocosm fan would expect, with buzzing, nerve-jangling riffs emerging like locust hordes as a growing sense of unease and danger is conveyed. It\u2019s unhurried as dark moods are slowly crafted with anticipation and dread rising. When the chaos kicks off, it\u2019s mid-tempo death-doom, grinding and heavy as fuck. Riffs slither everywhere, and death vocals bubble up from some bottomless chasm. There\u2019s a lot of Immolation here, but it never feels like a clone by-product. It\u2019s nasty, satisfying, and creepy. \u201cUnbound\u201d dials up the aggression and urgency with vicious blastbeats and insanity-inducing riffs scorching your brain and sense of safety. It\u2019s 6-plus minutes, but the vibe is so impactful and extreme that you want it to be longer to prolong the glorious punishment. Some of the leads and flourishes are very memorable and appear at just the right moment to really pop. There\u2019s a mood here that\u2019s hard to describe, but it\u2019s highly immersive and ugly down to the fucking bone marrow.<\/p>\n

\"\"\u201cSempiternal Penance\u201d keeps the winning streak going with another massive abomination loaded with guttural vocals and tremendously chaotic, deranged riffs. At times, it sounds like an unholy ritual is underway, but something dark and malevolent is starting to take control, and it\u2019s high time to get the fuck out. \u201cBeyond the Threshold of Flesh\u201d is the longest cut at 8:27, and Phobocosm excel at making these kinds of tracks work to their benefit as they escalate and deescalate the sense of fear and danger, but never let you off the meat hook. Rather than feeling like an effort to endure, the track sucks you into a cloud of grasping horrors, chews you up, and vomits out your maimed remains before you even know you\u2019re on the menu. That\u2019s a success in my book. What are the downsides? The presence of the three interludes. While they track the style of the main cuts and effectively maintain tension, it\u2019s really the 4 main set pieces that are the most interesting. That means you get about 9 minutes of good but less essential musical grout between those high points, and it feels like they\u2019re padding out an EP. At 35-plus minutes, Gateway doesn\u2019t feel overly long. The production is perfect for what Phobocosm do, with layers of murk and reverb creating the death cavern. The mix grants the guitars exactly the frightening, intimidating presence this style of death needs.<\/p>\n

Gateway sees former guitarist Rob Milly back for the first time since 2016s Bringer of Drought, and his work alongside Samuel Dufour\u2019s excellently unnatural playing leaves no one safe. The riffs and \u201charmonies\u201d these two conceive are nasty, putrid, and grotesque with bloody roots in death, doom and black metal. This is the reason Phobocosm\u2019s sound packs so much raw venom, and the tandem\u2019s dissonant maelstroms leave behind plenty of little details to unearth with subsequent spins. Once again, Etienne Bayard blows the doors off the crypt with massive death vocals. He\u2019s a superb croaker and makes everything considerably more menacing and horrible. Basically, he\u2019s the very Mouth of Madness.<\/p>\n

Phobocosm are one of the most reliable death metal monstrosities out there, and Gateway is another ruthless sucker punch to the epiglottis. While I fear this is dropping too late in the year to get the attention and end-of-year list space it deserves, Gateway definitely has my full attention as 2025 winds down. This is another high-quality dose of excessive extremity that deserves to be heard and marinated deeply within. Take my advice and follow Gateway into lunacy before it becomes another thing you foolishly missed.<\/p>\n

\ufeff<\/p>\n

Rating: 3.5\/5.0
DR: 7 | Format Reviewed: 320 kbps mp3
Label: Dark Descent<\/a>
Websites: darkdescentrecords.bandcamp.com<\/a> | facebook.com\/phobocosm<\/a> | instagram.com\/phobocosm<\/a>
Releases Worldwide: November 28th, 2025<\/p>\n

\n\tGive in to Your Anger:\n<\/p>\n