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I was surprised and pleased by the quality of Limbonic Art's 'comeback' album Legacy of Evil in 2007, and so I was actually looking forward to this one, as I thought it possible that they were on a tear, and might start producing actually interesting albums. Phantasmagoria, their seventh full-length, is still better than their old stuff, but it falls short of the mark set by its predecessor.

This is less symphonic and more guitar driven than I expected, but that really only serves to dampen the manic energy that made Legacy of Evil so entertaining. The music here is almost universally fast and aggressive, but also lacking in real memorable hooks, and so it becomes faceless. Limbonic Art always relied on the keys to provide melody and create identity for their songs, but here the keys have been throttled back and so the music has far less character than I would like. This is not bad, but it really lacks the energy and spark of the last album, without enough substance to cover for its lack of excess.