Embedded Files
PHANTOM “Tyrants Of Wrath”
PHANTOM “Tyrants Of Wrath”
By Dr. Abner Mality
This PHANTOM from Mexico conjures up the ghost of classic speed metal. One look at the cover to this sucker tells you that...it screams “1984” louder than George Orwell. All of a sudden, we’re getting hit with a ton of bands trying to revive the speed metal style...that mystical genre located in the gap between the NWOBHM and the thrash metal explosion.
PHANTOM do it justice here. It’s nothing you haven’t heard before if you’re into the sound, but they know that sound inside and out. What does surprise me just a little bit are the neoclassical touches they add to the speed metal stew. The intro “Poltergeist” and the opening licks to “Thunderbeast” shred like a junior YNGWIE before hitting the gas...incredibly, there’s a classical piano instrumental “Nocturnal Opus 666” that lasts more than three minutes. So that lends an epic edge to things.
But fans are gonna pick this up for neck-breaking speed. And they get it! Shades of classic EXCITER, AGENT STEEL and many old German bands like IRON ANGEL and LIVING DEATH permeate the PHANTOM sound. When “The Tower of Seth” leans into speedy NWOBHM licks, PHANTOM takes off like a fighter jet. “Violent Invasion” sounds like it could have been an old RAZOR track and “Thunderbeast” zips along like neoclassical power metal. A real surprise is found within the vocals of “Nimbus”. Previously, JC Necrohex’s vocals were the yelping, high-pitched barks we’ve come to expect from speed metal bands. But on “Nimbus”, a deep sonorous basso emerges...kind of jolting at first, but it actually fits this slightly more Gothic, trad metal cut quite nicely.
I felt “Dance of the Spiders” was rather lackluster and the title track seemed kind of generic despite its intensity, but the album picks up well with the raging thrash of “Lost In the Sands” and two excellent longer tracks, “Nazghul” and “Dark Wings of Death”. This latter song is a neck-wrecking riff factory for sure.
Bands from the Spanish speaking world seem to faithfully recreate the metal of olde and PHANTOM is no exception. From the primitive cover art to the yelping screams, this is prime speed metal.
Report abuse