Review by Michael on July 8, 2023.

Fallout is the first full-length album by German Phantom Corporation and let me state it clearly - it is a hell of a debut!. If you like a brute mixture of punk, grind, death and thrash, maybe the most similar to Lock Up, your heart will probably start pounding faster while you listen to it. The guys around vocalist Leif Jensen (ex Dew Scented) who are also not some nobodies but play(ed) in bands like Eroded, Obscenity or Slaughterday composed 11 brutal, awesomely diverse tracks that kick goddamn ass.

A song like 'Left To Fate' has some strong catchy Napalm Death vibes but paired with a lot of thrash borrowings, not only because of Leifs pissed-off screaming vocals but they give it added certain special flair. But while listening to the following track 'Gridlock' you will notice the diversity of their songwriting. Starting with a pretty catchy drum track, the song turns slower after a while and gets some old doomy Paradise Lost reminiscences. On the other hand there isn't just pure metal to find on the album but also some pretty dirty punk in the vein of Discharge like in 'Alongside Hell'. And to widen the variety of the album as much as possible, you can find a pretty nice acoustic intermezzo called 'Terminal Darkness' just before the thrash metal riff inferno 'Spiritual Arsonists' beats you up. What a goddamn hateful blast this track is and how the guys manage to perform at such an intermittent tempo changes is beyond comprehension.

Well, as you might read out of my words, this is a stunning debut album from a band I am pretty much looking forward to seeing at Dortmund Deathfest this August. I guess they will beat the shit out of the crowd and if the sound is as fat and powerful as the production of Fallout they will be one of the highlights of that festival.

Rating: 9.5 out of 10