I would be into it. It won't happen though. The bands popularity started to fade after BTO was released and with all this bad press? It would be very difficult to get off the ground again for the forth time.
Well it seems like Griz/Dan/Alex wanted the direction of BTO to continue and were the only ones in the studio most of the time so they have those songs. Nate wanted to bring back more of the SHTS/World of Violence sound and probably held onto those tracks. Plus his songs sound more raw so I image they self recorded the demos for PHANTASMA? I personally agree with Nate in terms of direction but I'm pretty sad he became disconnected with the band. However it's pretty easy to see the band was too split on what they wanted so it was doomed either way. A goddamn shame.
I haven't listened to all of PHANTASMA yet, but if you combined it with the bands' songs, would it make a coherent, no-bones-about it full length? Because that would rule.
All three records hold up and are extremely good. Nothing can change that. And I got to see them last year and they were great. All in all, I'm extremely happy with their career.
The band that got me into post-hardcore after being a pop/punk only kid WIITB was amazing. Didn't get into much else. But that album was important to me
The songs posted today do not go along with PHANTASMA at all IMO however PHANTASMA plays pretty coherently on its own. I personally love it! It's a grower too.
Stoked you guys are digging it. I think it easily surpasses BTO. It sounds like a more focused version of World of Violence. In a perfect world, Finch would have released WOV and PHANTASMA in final form and it would have been great. I remember hearing the leaked demo for the World of Violence title track and thinking it was pretty good. Once they officially released it as their farewell ep, I was blown away. I can only imagine how fantastic PHANTASMA would have been if the band went to the studio to finish it.
Agreed. I think I was a freshman in college when World of Violence leaked. I was so excited at the prospect of hearing those tracks in a final studio form. Weird how some of the bands best material is in the form of "unofficial" releases.
I was in college then as well! It's a bummer cause I would pay good money to hear World of Violence and PHANTASMA finished in studio. This band's history is one of a kind for sure hah.
I feel like this band never really recovered from SHTS dividing their fanbase. Personally, I'm lukewarm on WIITB and BTO, but I absolutely love SHTS, the self-titled EP, and all the unreleased demos. I was always of the impression that Nate and R2K were the ones spearheading the darker sound, but I could be wrong; it's just the vibe I've gotten from interviews they've done, and the one time they came on AbsolutePunk and answered fan questions. I don't think the band ever fully solved its identity crisis, and I can imagine that probably caused a lot of friction for them, both internally and externally. If you look at Nate's solo stuff, it often tends to be a lot darker -- look at Earthbound Ghost or Reverend Crow. I don't think any of his side projects have ever been that great, though. I think it'd be awesome if he started a new band that continued where darker Finch left off, and really did it justice.
I definitely had to keep reminding myself "this isn't even finished" when listening to Phantasma. It's a lot better than WOV in my opinion, that was never quite there for me. I think this band would have benefitted from switching up their songwriting a bit, and if the bass took up more capital in sound. Would have contributed to the heaviness factor.
Agreed. This sounds overall better. WOV was all over the place but man do I love "Lip Readers" and "Souls For Sale"! The very last demo from that session released much later, "Legend Has It" was also pretty killer. Been listening to Phantasma and SHTS all day. It's a good day.
WOV is so rough/raw. Makes PHANTASMA look like top studio recordings but man.. I can hear the potential in the songs and would even take them as they are but with better quality and be stoked as hell. "Calamity at Sea" is another gem.
Glitter might be my fav upon revisiting it tonight. With good production, Calamity at Sea could have been something spectacular. Very grating as is, but could have been H U G E
Exactly. It's like you can hear how the final product would probably sound like and it's superb. Sad we won't ever get that.