Artist: Unleash The Archers
Title: Phantoma
Label: Napalm
Cat #: NPR1258JC
Release Year: 2024
Duration: Album
Format: CD 
Packaging Type: Jewel Case

Phantoma is the sixth album from the Canadian metal band Unleash The Archers.

Canada’s most exciting metal band, UNLEASH THE ARCHERS, recently ascended to worldwide power metal domination with their dual-concept releases of 2017’s Apex and 2020’s breakout triumph Abyss. The latter won a JUNO Award for Metal/Hard Music Album of the Year, debuted at #1 on the US Current Hard Music and Top New Artist charts, was dubbed by Bandcamp as “a mandatory listen”, and named by Loudwire as one of the best rock and metal albums of the year - crowning the band as “gamechangers within the genre”. Now, the purveyors of futuristically-motivated metal return with their conceptual, AI inspired sixth studio album, Phantoma, out May 10, 2024 via Napalm Records.                    
                     
Frontwoman and lyricist Brittney Slayes conjured Phantoma’s concept in 2021; before the swarm of pressing commentary surrounding AI and its impending grip on society began to reach an all-time high. Led by the album’s protagonist Phantoma, a Phase 4 / Network Tier 0 unit - model A, the story recounts the trials of AI gaining sentience on a dystopian, near-future planet earth. Via the band’s one-of-a-kind blend of power metal, traditional heavy metal, modern prog and pop sensibilities, UNLEASH THE ARCHERS spin a web of sharp musicality, high sci-fi concept and important social commentary about seeing the brutal truths behind the manufactured sheen of social media posturing. Defying controversy and bringing their imagination to life, UNLEASH THE ARCHERS utilized AI during the writing, filming, and production process on Phantoma, and weaved electronic and synthwave elements throughout the album’s 10 colossal anthems, which - in line with its theme - prove much darker and heavier in comparison to the bright positivity of Abyss. Album opener “Human Era” sets the tone with imagery of a bleak, windswept futurescape that crescendos headlong into the breakneck pace of following power metal bastion “Ph4/NT0mA” - a masterwork of dueling guitar solos and vocal acrobatics. Trad-metal influenced “Buried In Code” lights the way with pummeling rhythms before the album’s path turns dark on heavy metal hardened “The Collective”, with Brittney Slayes’ warm tones inviting the listener to ‘join or stand aside’! Hair-raising first single “Green & Glass” unveils the truth with dynamic verses and progressive-tinged guitar work before the upbeat 80s flavored “Gods In Decay” and the extraordinary balladic anthem “Give It Up Or Give It All” showcase the varied song writing prowess of UNLEASH THE ARCHERS’ modern era. A trifecta of concept closers begins with the moody “Ghosts In The Mist”, leading into the soaring yet menacing “Seeking Vengeance” before closing with the bittersweet tale of “Blood Empress”.                    
                       
Mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen, and with lead guitarist Andrew Kingsley at the helm as both principal songwriter and producer, Phantoma is an exciting advancement in UNLEASH THE ARCHERS’ songwriting and storytelling mastery, and a giant leap forward in their towering musical trajectory.        

Recommended if you like: 3 Inches Of Blood, Frozen Crown, Huntress, Stratovarius, Gamma Ray, Ancient Bards,Paladin, Burning Witches

Track Listing:
01    Human Era
02    Ph4/NT0-mA
03    Buried In Code
04    The Collective
05    Green & Glass
06    Gods In Decay
07    Give It Up Or Give It All
08    Ghosts In The Mist
09    Seeking Vengeance
10    Blood Empress