PHANTOM-X - review added 8th April 2010
Album Review: This Is War (2010)
For fans of: Heavy Metal... and reliving history
Dallas, Texas metallers Phantom-X - Kevin Goocher on vocals, Glenn Malicki on bass, Bill Engfer on guitar, and Reece Stanley on drums - started in 2004. Their debut album Rise Of The Phantom followed a year later, as did a tour with Anvil and a slot in the latter's docu-film The Anvil Story.
3rd album This Is War follows 2006's Storm Riders. The sound is a mixture of many classic metal and thrash acts and serves as a bona fide homage to the genre as a whole. There's plenty of Megadeth - especially in Kevin's vocals - and Judas Priest, not to mention Saxon, Iron Maiden, Manowar, Ronnie James Dio, Accept and more.
This is a really good, enjoyable slab of heavy metal, but it's all way too derivative to be truly great. If this had been released 30 years ago it would have been genre defining. in 2010 all it's doing is taking what has come before and rehashing it.
You can't knock the talent these guys display, and kudos to them for carrying the torch. I recommend this album if you crave the glory days and fancy a new take on the old ways...but ultimately this has all been done before with a lot more style.
Check out... All of it...but place your tongue in your cheek first...
Track List:
01. Call To Arms
02. This Is War
03. Forever Midnight
04. Chaos In Paradise
05. Into Battle We Ride
06. A Strange World (Chapter 8)
07. The Lord Of The Sword
08. Twilight
09. Blood Of Eden
10. Discovery II (Chapter 9)
11. Whore Of Babylon
12. Cries In The Night
13. Deep Six Down (Chapter 10)
Label: Perris Records
Artist's website(s): Phantom-X , MySpace
