Review: PHANTASMA “The Deviant Hearts”

PHANTASMA “The Deviant Hearts”
Napalm Records

When a couple of talented people are getting together for some creation, it’s always interesting and unexpected. You’ll never know where the collaboration goes and what will be created when creative ways are crossing.
In 2015 new super group was born. The project called Phantasma. It includes Charlotte Wessels (Delain), Georg Neuhauser (Serenity) and Oliver Philipps (Everon). On November, 20 their first LP was released. An album called The Deviant Hearts.

What can be expected from sympho, power and progressive-metal musicians collaboration? Especially when we’re talking about conceptual album? Power-metal fairytale with sympho-elements? Or hard prog-creation with mash of styles?

So, here it is, The Deviant Hearts – mostly ballade sympho-album, where, as might have been foreseen, main specialty in collaboration of Charlotte and Georg’s vocals.

By the way, it isn’t first experience of cooperative work. In 2011 Charlotte took part in recording of Serenity’s “Serenade of Flames” single. But in Phantasma vocal’s merge sounds more than harmonic.

The Deviant Hearts starts with acoustic “Incomplete”, which is intro to the whole album’s concept, and slowly goes into power title “The Deviant Hearts”. The story least for an hour, and as it said, it’s mostly created from symphonic ballads in all variations. But it can’t be said that the album is only ballads. There is priceless “Miserable Me”, where Georg’s voice spreads with all its power and beauty; “Crimson Course”, where influence of power-metal can be heard, and many more interesting and original.

The Deiant Hearts is an album of creative searching. It seems like musicians tried to put maximum ideas and creations in an album. So it’s pretty hard to feel all of them from the first time you listen to the album. But with next listening Phantasma’s creation gets more and more colored.

This album like a flower, that looks beautiful at first glance. But only with closer look you can understand its inimitable particularity.

The sources of inspiration and musical infuences, that played a role in creation of this album, can be searched for a long time. But in isn’t necessary because The Deviant Heart, like a whole Phantasma project was born by creation and for creation. Music honesty, candor and feeling that recording process of each song was something special, all of this passes through an album with a red line.

So, that’s what it is, The Deviant Hearts. Everyone can found in it something for himself.

Listened, searched and found by Sandra.