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PHANTOM SPELL
Immortal’s Requiem

Wizard Tower (2022)
Rating: 8.5/10

Immortal’s Requiem is the impressive debut full-length opus from UK progressive rock project Phantom Spell, the brainchild of one Kyle McNeill, who is also the frontman of London-based heavy metal band Seven Sisters.

This is a heart-warming affair dripping with a quintessentially British air and evoking images of majestic castle walls and secret coves as we are led into the weakening mind of a wizard. I love albums where you can’t fully pin-point its influences but become at one with its scent, like flicking through the pages of a heavily yellowed old book of spells and esoteric mystery.

Brim-full of charm and mesmeric passion, Immortal’s Requiem soothes the soul in its ability to re-imagine those Styx and Kansas records your dad used to harp on about! Sweet melodies abound throughout this calm, measured and extremely melodic record, but there are also those more jarringly complex connotations too with the bewildering brilliance of, say, ‘Seven Sided Mirror’ which has streaks of Blue Öyster Cult.

There’s so much to explore here as McNeill nods towards Thin Lizzy, Saga, Magnum et al, exploring the depths of hard rock to create a passionate but extremely comforting and rewarding opus that even steps towards New Wave Of British Heavy Metal at times, and will surely appeal to the traditional doom crowd too, even though it never goes that far.

The wistful ‘Dawn Of Mind’ features wildness within its contours yet remains calm and collected, while ‘Black Spire Curse’ is an intricate, multi-layered 70s prog coolness awash with nostalgia and a spatial grandiosity yet without ever becoming too self-indulgent. In fact, Immortal’s Requiem is one of the most pleasing examples of retro rock I’ve heard for a long time, and yet it’s so absorbing and meditative as ‘Up The Tower’ bristles with Brit rock aplomb and ‘Blood Becomes Sand’ calmly washes over the body yet with a degree of melancholy.

Vocally, McNeill has a soothing tone, more so with the lower tones, especially on the aforementioned ‘Blood Becomes Sand’ which unravels beautifully and boasts, dare I say it, an almost Oasis-trudge in patches while leaning towards what is now an expected 70s majesty.

All I can really say with an album like this is to listen to it and peel back its layers to uncover a wealth of artistry that drifts in all manner of directions, from classic Iron Maiden and Dio, to Uriah Heep and Journey, via J.R.R. Tolkien and those old Fighting Fantasy role-playing books I keep going back to. Throw the dice, turn the page… and begin.

Neil Arnold

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