Phantom Corporation - Fallout Review

There are two very defined kinds of album openers. I mean, there are three, but this third can be confused with the second depending on whom evaluates it. The first is the right to it kind. It’s when the band goes right to what matters that is to musically present themselves and their music commencing right away with a song. My favorites are when the band starts with an yell right from the depts of the lungs or when the drums give the tone spanking all around. The second is when the band delivers a quick intro using elements that don’t belong to the band’s repertoire. I guess that this the most common. In general, bands opt to an intro that is really far from the band’s métier. And the last, but not the least, there are intros that are a track. In general, they are also made of elements that are far from the band’s business. Actually, they are a track apart from everything in the album. Phantom Corporation with “Fallout” provides us the first. “Dead Inside” goes right to it showing everything the band’s got. Let’s say it’s an appetizer of what is to come.

“Fallout” will be appreciated better by the fans that love that straight ahead approach that Thrash Metal bands got from Hardcore. In fact, Phantom Corporation aren’t a pure Thrash Metal band as they incorporate many other elements from Death Metal, but the soul of the band’s music is Hardcore’s spontaneity with that crust grip that everyone loves. I mean, every metaller that loves the heavyness of the music. Phantom Corporation’s music is a mix of all these elements, but what attracts the eye is the chord riffing the band uses. They are fast, furious, and sharp. Add to that a prone to be really addictive. The kind of riffing that glues into the fan’s mind. Take a look at “The Echoes Of Doom” and see what I mean. It’s really impossible to stay put. I mean it.

Lirically, the band is also connected to Hardcore’s political tradition. Songs are socially enganed and concerned with the well being of all human creatures that live on this sad, and lonely, and pathetic little planet. “No Tomorrow” tells a lot about this. But I guess it’s “Fire and Fury” that showcases this better. It’s not mandatory, but I guess a Metal band has to take a side whatever it is. After all, Metal music is all about being clean with the fans.

The band consists of ex-Members of Dew-Scented, Weak Aside, Slaughterday, Obscenity. On the live-front, it is completed by Exumer/The Very End guitarist Marc and the group has by now appeared at selected festival events (Bloodshed, Ruhrpott Metal Meeting, Metal Bash, Obscene Extreme, Tombstoned Fest, etc.) and also shared various club-stages with acts like Trap Them, Venom Prison, Voivod, Asphyx, Midnight, Disbelief, Wiegedood or Krisiun.