Interesting bedfellows on this split album. On the one hand we have a death metal band from the USA and on the other a dark ambient industrial artist from France. So, we get a mix here from brutal and horrifying extremity to calmer but no less harrowing atmospheres. It’s up to Lord Evil who is behind the Melek-Tha, an apparently made-up name rather than something out of Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, to bear life to this album and bring about an intro of ‘pure hell and damnation.’ ‘Codex Gigas of Judgement: Alpha Phase 1’is downright creepy ambience with an end of world sombreness that has classical strains, piano and spoken voice. It heralds the apocalypse of Phalanx Inferno well and they take over for their half of the split and rampage through 4 tracks of brutally, battering death metal.

We last heard from them on ‘The Age Of Anti-Aquarius’ in 2020 and they are yet to get to the album stage. Despite this, the pedigree of the band speaks for itself. We have past and present as well as live members from acts such as Amon, Cruciamentum, Malevolent Creation and Angelcorpse from the drummer, Plague Swarm and Trench Warfare, guitars and Abysmal, vocals (not actually Abysmal but in fact growly with a few higher pitched grindy yelps). As ‘Diminished Dominant’ heftily bruises in we get a slimy and squalid sound that’s far from comfortable. There is a bit of Deicide vocally but it’s the squealing, sharp guitar runs and solos that stand out amidst the carnage. There’s certainly some Azagthothian influence about them and they snake around the bass heft with a serpentine call that’s almost like a voice screaming from the darkness in itself. The higher vocals on songs such as ‘Broken Spirit March’ are kind of needed here and it’s like they and the guitar runs are on one side braced in an infernal battle with the ballsy drumming and lower growls. Complete with voice additions from Tes Reoth (Serpent’s Oath) and none other than the Master Speckmann himself these tracks give you an utter stomping and flail the skin of your bones whilst they are at it.

Deep breath grasped, after this it’s time for Melek-Tha to take up the duration and firstly continue with the 2nd phase of their Codex. Eternal Indifference seems to be message spoken with a foreboding presence here before the classicism and chanting of the shadowy ‘Gloire Aux Tenebres’ continues vocally what sounds very much like an end-times sermon. Synths pulse in the background, the message turns into what sounds like Latin and then a martial industrial beat joins in. It’s all really ominous and quite chilling. Somewhere amidst the voices we apparently have Deacon D of Hertrohertzen and there are no shortage of choral aspects in the background providing what could well be interpreted as biblical judgement. Is this a eulogy for mankind? Well, the 13-minute ‘Le Grand Requiem Des Impies,’ certainly feels like one as we are caught in a wind tunnel leading to hell with the groaning cries and tortured groans of the damned filling the void. Deeply cinematic in scope this would be a perfect soundtrack for the visions of someone like Clive Barker. The title ‘Diabolus Rex Infernum’ hardly needs a scholar to translate and the whole part of the split leaves your skin crawling with palpable dread. I expect that is very much what the artist is projecting and with what appears to be a huge body of work stretching back to 1996 there is plenty of dark passageways to explore for those that dare to open this particular lament configuration.

(7.5/10 Pete Woods)

https://www.facebook.com/phalanxinferno

https://godzovwarproductions.bandcamp.com/album/order-of-eternal-indifference