The Phantom - Cauchemar Transylvanien [Red]

Two flags: the band is Phantom, not The Phantom, and this is a four-track EP rather than a full album - both deserve correction in the listing.

Transylvanian Nightmare is four tracks of vampiric speed metal from Guadalajara band Phantom, pressed on red vinyl that fits the subject matter perfectly.

Phantom began in 2021 as something all four members did purely for fun, which is usually a sign of a band worth paying attention to. Three demos, a split with four like-minded bands, and a full-length debut album Handed to Execution followed quickly, and that EP was released in 2024. Their lineage is of the good old kind: the occult theater of first-wave black metal, the dirt of Venom, the chill of Bathory, the speed of early Slayer, played without the retro polish that ruins so many bands working in that field. When High Roller spotted them, the back catalog finally reached the people who were looking for it.

The opening track starts at a gallop and never lets up, the riffs are sharp and the vocals are screamed from behind a crypt door. From the Abyss is the nastiest thing here, all tremolo and menace, while Epitaph is the real surprise, a classic guitar instrumental that proves these four really know how to play. Raging Pyres closes out the EP by simply going faster than anything that came before.

Short, vicious and fully committed. The red vinyl was never in question.