“Tyrants Of Wrath” is the second album released by the Mexican band PHANTOM. This project comes from Guadalajara and plays a pretty good form of old school blackened Speed / Thrash Metal. These latinos are clearly influenced by the pioneering names of the genre, mostly the early incarnations of German bands such as very early DESTRUCTION, SODOM, KREATOR, as well as stuff from US and Canada like SLAYER and RAZOR. Here we have a fusion of raw Thrash Metal and Speed, something that is present in the band image and concept too. If we have to talk about other contemporary bands that bring back to life the splendour and the atmosphere of the past, here we have something similar to MIDNIGHT, CRUEL FORCE, VULTURE, POWER FROM HELL and DEATHHAMMER. There are signs of Black and Death Metal too, so we can say that “Tyrants Of Wrath” has much in common with “The Awakening” by MERCILESS or very early NECRODEATH, although the Italian guys were more technical. The vocals are a bit monotonous in a forced effort to emulate Tom Araya’s style (high-pitched screamings included). Here and there we can hear some melody and classic Metal influences too. The artwork is signed by Maegan LeMay from CRUEL FORCE and SPHINX. PHANTOM choose a genre with many restrictions, if you want to be faithful to its history, and these Mexican guys conform perfectly with the dictates of the ’80s. All this results in a project unoriginally derivative, that merely replicates existing and ancient ideas. This is the price to pay when you approach bands like PHANTOM. Since they come from Mexico, I would have expected something closer to latin cult names such as TRANSMETAL, TOXODETH, MORTUARY etc. However, “Tyrants Of Wrath” is a good release from a passionate and coherent band, an album that deserves a listening. www.instagram.com/phantom__speed, www.facebook.com/hrrecords