Guide: Slovak Metal Underground: Phantasma

PHANTASMA

Destroyed, 'Cause He Believed (demo 1993, 5 songs)
Welcome To Heaven (MC - Metal Age Production, 1994, 11 songs)
Jazz For Jesus (MC - Black Labyrinth production 1996, 10 songs)
Jahve (CD - Rock Extremum production 1999, 11 songs)

Destroyed, 'Cause He Believed, 1992
1. Intro
2. The Emotional Dullness
3. Chemical Infection
4. Human Intolerance
5. Destroyed, 'Cause He Believed
  (Recorded 1992, Slovak Radio Studios, Kosice)
Welcome To Heaven, 1994
1. The Judgement Day
2. Back From The Past
3. Unnamed Grave
4. Last Homage
5. Welcome To Heaven part one
6. Welcome To Heaven part two
7. The Eternal
8. A Falling Head
9. The Wedding Night
10. Emotional Dullness
11. Ave Satanas
  (Recorded 1994, Slovak Radio Studios, Kosice)
Jazz For Jesus, 1996
1. We'll Meet In Hell Again
2. Their Sword Was Hard Indeed!
3. A Shore
4. Get Away!
5. Jesus Is Just A Stone
6. A Document About Jesus Death
7. I Trust In God Only
8. Sans Commentaire (Instrumental)
9. Jazz For Jesus
10. Ave Satanas - Songs Of Demons (Instrumental)
  (Recorded 1995, Slovak Radio Studios, Kosice)
Jahve, 1999
1. Eternal Horizon
2. Vision
3. Mission
4. Depraved
5. Disease Called Religion
6. Ave Sathanas III. (Instrumental)
7. Oasis Of Loneliness
8. You Must Kill Him
9. Noctis (Instrumental)
10. Jahve
11. Mangy Dogs
  (Recorded 1998, Slovak Radio Studios, Kosice)
Reviews on Jazz For Jesus, Album 1996:
- (Freezing Flames, Hungary)
  Finally! A recording with fucking great sound and music! The fast parts are the coolest, it kicks everybody's ass, that's for sure. There are so many shitty and boring stuffs that this one was really a big pleasure for my ears! By the way, it's a Slovakian quartet of crazy long-haired guys and this is their third demo. I forgot to mention that they play Death Metal, a mature kind of Death Metal, and the lyrics make fun of Christianity. Guitar solos, great riffs, some synth-background, suffering vocals. Quite deadly it is.
- (Horror High, USA)
  Wow, the band from Slovakia comes with very weird sound. Dark Satanic brutal death metal with many atmospheric parts. Vocal is very vomit, but I guess it fits the music.
- (Godreah Zine, Great Britain)
  A splendid tape from Slovakia with molten vocals usually found on a grind album. The music however is a fusion of brutal death and dreamy keyboard that sit next to each other rather than intermingle. This is original stuff with cohesive melody and violent aggression swaying from one extreme to another. There's an abundance of different set pieces to keep you on ya toes. The songs have purpose yet defy the norm with bizarre arrangements. If your after something odd then go for this.
- (Paranoyhard Fanzine, France)
  To my mind "Jazz For Jesus" is a good surprice, because Phantasma's athospheric doom death metal is really likeable maybe because of the very sad, dark and even evil atmosphere. A music for dark souls only with interesting synths parts, melodic arrangements and even female chorus but with energic and brutal fast parts as well.
- (Vampiria zine, Italy)
  The demo shows a band blends together different moods from death metal, to good technical elements, from charming atnosphere to good mid-tempos for what I can define techno-atmospheric death metal with influences which arrive until the thrash scene... I like this demo even if a better production was necessary to give more powerfulness to their songs.
- (What's up newsletter, Romania)
  "Jazz For Jesus"???... hmm, would you take a guess at what kind of music does this band actually play? I wouldn't, sincerely... Not to mention that with a name barely enlightening like Phantasma, you may never know... Now, to cut this nonsense guesswork crap, I'll reveal to you the band's personal claim to play Satanic atmospheric death metal. Well, it is death metal indeed, and quite atmospheric as well, but do not let the word satanic mislead you, because you will not find any fucking black metal element on this tape - the lyrics are definitely anti-Christian though, but still miles away from all that satanic shit... and this might just be good point to Phantasma's advantage. On the other hand, this is the sort of thing that leaves you like: "well, not a bad try, still it could have been done better, you know..." to put it another way, these guys don't really lack good ideas, but they'd need a little more inspiration when developing them }had all songs been arranged akin to the title track, I would have not mentioned this...) Also, I most definitely didn't dig the vocals, as they're too cavernous for my taste. Nevertheless I've noticed and quite appreciated the band's striving for diversity, in defiance of the self-imposed restriction characteristic of the style. Moreover, these four guys are not afraid of displaying some performance skills, and all in all they do succeed in achieving a rather interesting release in this cassette album.

Phantasma | Lyrics