Review by Ben for Diabolical Masquerade - The Phantom Lodge (1997)

Heavy metal shenanigans dilute what is otherwise excellent theatrical black metal.

I’d been enormously eager to get my hands on this album back in 1997. Diabolical Masquerade’s debut album Ravendusk in My Heart was brilliant, with Blakkheim’s mixture of black and more traditional metal really striking a chord with me. It’s interesting to note that when he created that first album, there was no certainty regarding the future of his main band Katatonia. With the band put on hold in 1995 due to some internal disagreements, Jonas Renkse went off to start October Tide with Fred Norrman and recorded Rain Without End the same year (it wouldn’t be released until 1997). Given the opportunity to do something a bit different, Blakkheim decided he would take a more extreme approach, leaving the realms of death doom metal temporarily to try his hand at black metal. Yet one gets the feeling when listening to Ravendusk in My Heart that it was far more than simply a side project to keep the man busy for a time. While there’s no doubt Blakkheim used Diabolical Masquerade as a chance to broaden his musical output and to experiment with a totally different sound, he kept the flamboyant creativity in check to produce a consistent, entrancing album.

By the time 1997 came around, Katatonia had regrouped to record their best album to date with Brave Murder Day, which was met with both fan and critical praise. With the future of that outfit assured, Blakkheim went about crafting a Diabolical Masquerade sequel. The result is on paper not particularly different to the debut, with cleanly produced symphonic backed black metal mixed with thrash and heavy metal influences, all wrapped up in the same grand bizarre carnival-like atmosphere. The faster sections are once again fantastic with symphonic driven riffs, heavy double bass kicking drums and venomous vocals taking the listener on a thrilling musical journey. Dan Swanö had far less input on The Phantom Lodge than the previous album, acting as producer rather than a musician, which means Blakkheim handles guitars, bass, keyboards and vocals almost singlehandedly (Swanö contributes guest vocals and Ingmar Döhn a bass solo). The use of flutes (performed by Tina Sahlstedt and Marie Gaard Engberg) and keyboards really add to the atmosphere too and stacks of little variations throughout mean you never quite know what’s around the corner. It’s a very interesting listen and when at its best, comes close to matching the incredible debut.

Unfortunately, signs that Blakkheim had begun to see Diabolical Masquerade as nothing more than a side project to his main event had begun to surface. The restraint that he displayed on the first album had been replaced by a rather uninhibited flamboyance, with most tracks swinging wildly between the above mentioned superb black metal and awkwardly out of place theatrics. Even the best tracks on the album (The Puzzling Constellation of a Deathrune and The Walk of the Hunchbacked) have sections of traditional metal, which while not terrible, break up the atmosphere in unnecessary ways. In the worst cases (Hater and Upon the Salty Wall of the Broody Gargoyle), Blackkheim simply gives into the urge and goes ridiculously over the top. Hater contains very simplistic thrash metal riffs complete with Swanö’s heavy metal squeals and is quite frankly terrible. Upon the Salty Wall of the Broody Gargoyle follows a similar path with a swinging, repetitive chorus, but at least breaks up the shenanigans with some nice atmospheric sections. These moments don’t entirely ruin The Phantom Lodge, but they do succeed in making it a far less enjoyable album than Ravendusk in My Heart. A disappointing album, but still a decent one!