Band: Agathodaimon
Title: Phoenix
Label: Massacre Records
Distribution: Suburban.
Release date: 20/03/2009
Review: CD

Next year, the German band Agathodaimon will celebrate its fifteenth anniversary. Since 1995, this band recorded four full length albums, the band performed on major festivals such as Wave Gotik Treffen or Wacken, and they went on tour with bands as Children Of Bodom, Dimmu Borgir, Lacrimosa, Dismember, Hypocrisy and Benediction amongst others. Personally I did like the first albums a lot. The band’s early style could be considered a melodic and slightly symphonic-gothic form of Black Metal, but this style somewhat changed into a more Dark Metal-oriented direction. The former release, Serpent’s Embrace, was the first one that even brought a modest progressive approach. And the newest studio album, Phoenix, continues this ‘progression’.
For about sixty three minutes (more than seventy minutes in case you might find the digi-pack edition, which includes two bonus tracks, i.e. two different versions of Alone In The Dark), Phoenix brings very melodic, rather catchy and rhythmic Metal, still strongly based on the Black Metal-roots. The vocals are more varying than before. Besides blackish screams and death grunts, clean vocals are of bigger importance than before. Also instrumentally, blackish elements are interspersed with progressive and post-modernistic ones, and the keyboards are more ‘electronic’ (and ‘cosmic’), while the use of gothified synths appears only sporadically. And yes, also the atmosphere is less blackened / blackening than the one on the first albums. And what’s more, the very clean (read: safe) production (Kohlekeller Studio with engineer Kristian Kohlmannslehner - think Six Reasons To Kill, Flowing Tears, Winds Of Torment, Bluttaufe, Crematory and many others) makes it all even more ‘decent’. At the same time, this can be considered positive and negative. The whole is more accessible and open-minded, and at the same moment it is meant for a wider audience than the first albums, yet again some early-years-fans will consider this album less inspired.
Mention-worth is the recruitment of drummer Manuel Steitz, who does a great job in order to replace founding member Matthias R., who left due to personal reasons.
Anyway, I guess Phoenix won’t easily become the 2009-highlight for the Black Metal-audience, but it will certainly be appreciated by a wider Dark / Goth / Melodic Metal-fanbase.

77/100

Ivan Tibos.