Phantom are a band who have experienced what can only be described as a meteoric rise within the metal underground over the course of their four year existence. Yes, you read that correctly: This band is younger than this here webzine! What was initially formed as a passion project by four likeminded thrasher friends in 2021 quickly evolved into a full time band. In 2022, the band released a slew of demos, and by 2023, they released their debut album, Handed to Execution. Although it managed to elude me upon initial release, Execution caught my ear after the fact, and left me eager for whatever these Mexi-maniacs had in store for the future. Now we finally have it in the form of the band’s sophomore outing, Tyrants of Wrath.
Much like Execution before it, Tyrants is an unrelenting slab of high speed blackened thrash sounding straight out of ’84. Every song is a ferocious ripper, grabbing the listener by the throat and refusing to ever ease its grip. In this regard, it might be easy to dismiss Phantom as predictable, one-dimensional, and even cliché. That said, I’m of the philosophy that if you can do something well, why not exhaust it to the point of overkill? In the case of Phantom, these maniacs have clearly studied their Slayer, Sodom, Destruction, Kreator, and so forth, to craft an album that’s downright diabolical from start to finish.
After an obligatory spook-fest intro sets the stage (“Poltergeist”), it becomes evident that this is more than your run of the mill, meat and potatoes, mosh-o-rama thrash outing. “The Tower of Seth” and “Violent Invasion” owe as much to classic speed metal as they do thrash, disorienting the listener with blindingly fast drumming and a lethal dose of velocity. These traditional metal flavorings don’t end there. “Thunderbeast” can best be described as NWOBHM worship on crank, and the purely leftfield epic metal of “Nimbus” screams Manilla Road, which is always fine by me, even on a thrashing affair such as this.
As Tyrants progresses, it grows more manic and feral. What begins as the sonic equivalent of a three-way street brawl between Slayer’s Show No Mercy, Whiplash’s Power and Pain, and Destruction’s Sentence of Death quickly devolves into a barrage of aural blasphemies akin to early Sodom and Bathory. I know some might object my branding of this as a blackened thrash album, but when it comes to Tyrants‘ back half, particularly on cuts like the title track, “Lost in the Sands”, and “Nazghûl”, I humbly ask: What would YOU call it? The riffs are evil, the drumming is nonstop, the vocals alternate between harsh rasps and high pitched shrieks; yeah, that sounds like a blackened thrash album to me!
Is Tyrants of Wrath the most compelling or innovative album in its field? Far from it, especially when you’ve got acts like Hexecutor dropping the fare that they are. That said, I’d be lying if I said I didn’t find this album, and Phantom as a whole, to be highly satisfactory. The songs are strong, the production is old school, and the spirit is there. No posers allowed here, folks! Phantom are guaranteed to thrash n’ speed n’ bleed their way all over your stereo, and you can take that to the bank. Rage on or die!
7 out of 10
Label: High Roller Records
Genre: Black/Thrash Metal
For fans of: Deathhammer, Vulture, Sodom
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