Phantom Elite’s second album ‘Titanium’ – released via Frontiers Records in January 2021 – showed a huge leap in quality from their earlier ‘Wastleland’ release. In songs like ‘The Race’ they demonstrated a gift for a much bigger chorus hook and in terms of musicianship, some of the more complex elements seemed so much tighter than before. More importantly, an increased budget afforded the album a superior production job. Joeri Wamerdam’s drums finally came with a decent punch, and combined with a few heavy riffs, Phantom Elite finally sounded like a band with a lot of muscle.
The current single ‘Glass Crown’ shows off the band’s more melodic side with a huge chorus worthy of Nightwish, but the more AOR-centric slant doesn’t come at the expense of heaviness. There are more than enough moments where guitarist Max van Esch gets to shine. With some well-crafted music joined by a lyric warning of the darker sides of social media, it’s a cut above the usual Euro rock material.
You can watch the whole clip below.