Review by Saxy S for Unleash the Archers - Phantoma (2024)

I was quite harsh towards Unleash the Archers when I discovered their 2017 record, Apex. It was a record that had potential by being directly influenced by classic Iron Maiden albums, while also providing some modern flare. Most notably in the vocals by Brittney Hayes, whose timbre was not typecast to arbitrary operatic vocals as is commonplace in many power/symphonic metal bands with female leads. But some truly awful production and how ideas ran out of steam remarkably quickly left Apex as a bit of a dud for me.

But look here, UtA (Unleash the Archers) are becoming slightly more progressive with this new concept album, Phantoma, which deals with the dangers and hypotheticals when artificial intelligence takes over the world, and the personality of art is deemed meaningless. Yeah, about that….

Phantoma is not a record that has learnt from its mistakes. The low end of the album is still lacking any presence, which leaves the rhythm guitars to do a lot more of the heavy lifting. And guess what? UtA seem to be aware of this. That’s why you’ll notice a lot less of the Iron Maiden-esque dueling guitar solos and instrumental breaks in general. Having less variety in the melodies leaves much of this album feeling very predictable. And that leaves most of the melodic heavy lifting to Brittney Hayes, who unfortunately has taken a step down when it comes to performances. They are not delivered with the same emotional weight as before and feel compromised by the mixing. Some of the harmonies during choruses are nice. What is not nice is the compressed harsh vocals that are hidden behind the wall of chugging breakdowns in the guitars.

The other big concern I had with Apex that has not been addressed here is the albums length, or rather, the individual song lengths. There is one (1) track on this album that is shorter than four (4) minutes (“Buried In Code”) and everything easily surpasses that. Almost every one of the remaining nine (9) songs burn out before their conclusions. It’s as if UtA had more information that they wanted to give to the audience, but not enough time during their presentation. Final choruses are extended beyond what is necessary and subtle changes such as final key changes on “Green & Glass,” or a post-black metal outro on “Blood Empress” are not quite as impactful because it has become tiring.

Longs songs/albums are not inherently a bad thing, but when they are poorly executed, it can leave a bitter taste in the listener’s mouth. For an album whose concept is about artificial intelligence and the dangerous slope that is A.I. generated art, Unleash the Archers made an album that is lacking in the humanity part of the story.

Best Songs: Ph4/NT0mA, Green & Glass, Seeking Vengeance