Unleash the Archers is releasing their highly anticipated new album entitled ‘’Phantoma’’. It’s one of the most sought-after new albums in Power Metal of 2024 alongside juggernauts like Hammerfall and Dragonforce.

It’s hard to imagine it’s already been 4 years since the incredible ‘’Abyss’’ album is one of the very best Power Metal albums of this generation bar none. This album transcended for me the genre itself and showed me something far different than the genesis of Power Metal back in the mid-nineties.  Alongside bands like Helion Prime and Immortal Guardian, they have been able to branch out into different paths and establish new lyrical themes from the usual and tedious content from back in the day.

Canada has been harvesting Metal bands ever since the introduction of the sub-genre back in the 70s. It’s been a consistent training ground and so many influential bands in many genres have come out of here. We usually have bands that have success elsewhere (especially in Europe) than in their native land. I mean we have Voivod whose influence is still felt everywhere, and they are still going. We also have the unsung heroes of Anvil and Annihilator who have been a constant force in Thrash since the early to mid-80s. Yet, even though they are good bands, I believe that bands like 3 Inches of Blood and Unleash the Archers are the best Metal bands ever from Canada and will be remembered for a very long time. They have forged an identity like no one and the quality of their overall material in their careers overlaps any other bands from here.

One question you usually must ask yourself about Power Metal is what is the thing that attracts you most to a Power Metal band song? Well, it’s several different factors that are in play. You must think about choruses & melodies, the vocal ability of the singer, or even the feeling created by the composition as a whole.

When you are used to bands talking about dragons, sorcerers, wizards, and everything in between, you get disconnected from the whole genre. You see imitators good and bad, people trying way too hard or just do not have the vocal talent that Power Metal needs, it happens often. Unlike Symphonic Metal which has the smoke and mirrors effect with a frontwoman there for more show than talent, in Power Metal you must have someone who can deliver in every facet. Well, Unleash the Archers are the archetype that you are looking for.

You have to start with their dynamic lead singer, Brittney Slayes. The black-haired siren was hand-picked by the modern-day maestro Arjen Antony Lucassen on the last Star One album to be one of its lead singers. When you get chosen by him, you know you have a one-in-a-generation vocal talent that is head and shoulders above the rest. Arjen has chosen singers like Simone Simons (Epica), Cristina Scabbia (Lacuna Coil), Floor Jansen (Nightwish), Marcela Bovio (Mayan), the cream of the crop, and some of the very best singers in any genre in the world of music.

Brittney has developed a cult-like following and such respect in the genre and has participated in so many projects ranging from genre to genre. She has captured the attention of many and I am happy to see a frontwoman that is not going to be the focal point and oversexualized like so many before her. She is one of the best vocalists, man or woman in Metal, it’s a question of equality, she has the range, the ability, and the presence that can rival anyone. Please check out the full band playthrough or isolated tracks on their YouTube channel, it’s an impressive natural talent, with no overdubs or any technology enhancements, and that’s bloody rare in a lead singer nowadays.

In somewhat of a tangent, I have seen photos and read so many articles of how the band is so nice with their fans, in the mees and greets alongside the natural chitchat outside of the shows. I have spoken to people who met the band and have spoken highly about the fact that they are so down-to-earth and regular people. There is such a connection between them and their fans, unlike many bands nowadays. You can see that are genuinely happy to speak with fans, take a picture, or even sign an autograph. You don’t see that anymore honestly and I am glad to see bands that know where they came from and haven’t forgotten about the people that made it possible. I will always have a soft spot in my heart for bands, and celebrities that are nice to their fans and go above and beyond to show how they care.

Unleash the Archers have blessed us with some pretty awesome music videos in the past like ‘’Cleanse the Bloodline’’, ‘’Abyss’’, ‘’Faster than Light’’ and ‘’Northwest Passage’’ and they have surpassed that with ‘’Green and Glass’’. It’s an AI-developed video that has had some very harsh criticism from many. I think if you use Artificial Intelligence in a good way, in a creative way, I don’t mind at all. I know some bands have used AI for cover art and even whole albums have been AI-enhanced (**cough** Motley Crue **cough**). The video is astonishing to say the very least, it’s very futuristic, reminding me of the some of Japananimations of the early 90s mixed with Tron. It’s something very different and it’s another notch on their belt of great videos. The song is a real throwback to the bands that influenced them like Rhapsody, Stratovarius, and Gamma Ray amongst countless others. It’s the song from the new album that really can resonate with the longstanding fans of Power Metal.

So let’s start with the first song off the new opus, The Human Era, to me is straight from the Queensryche 80’s catalog, it feels anthemic yet proggy, and could have fit really well in the mid to late Hard Rock scene, it definitely has that vibe. The lyrical content is something we can all relate to, maybe in the not-distant future, the only thing left on Earth will not be the humans. There will be ashes of empire everywhere but only technology will outlast us. It’s a bit of facing the harsh truth that we are killing the planet day by day and we must do something before it’s too late, or is already too late? That’s the question….

Ph4/NT0-ma continues the story of the first song, a sentient being, the Biome is searching for life in a bestowed wasteland, post-apocalyptic earth. It seems to be being that was present when it was destroyed, couldn’t do anything about it, and watching everything crumbling down and wanting to be free at last from this pain in a heartless world. It wants to feel alive again be free from this glass prison and escape from what the humans left after everything was said and done.

Buried in Code deals with hidden messages through programming, maybe secrets, or something to be revealed when the right person finds it. The numbers may not mean much to the common person but some people read through the lines and are able to find out the meaning of it all. I guess it’s like reading a book or reading lyrics, some people will decipher codes and hidden stuff and will see what it means to you. You will always have the conspiracy theorists but you have the purists too, life is full of symbols, figures, and numbers, it’s relative to each other.

The Collective definitely has this Star Trek vibe about it (think the Borg), about unity as a collective, an entity following one path. Sentients are guided together to find enlightenment with a clear consciousness away from any distractions, let find common-minded people with the same spark you have inside of you. Common ground for a group of people marching as one, not a cult, but a more mindful reward in sight. It’s a group goal, yet it can be negative or positive, it really depends on the people at hand!

I already spoke about Green and Glass beforehand but the lyrics reflect on the fact you can greenish and lush landscapes around you but if they are covered with glass, it loses that security blanket and it feels more dangerous, there is danger in the beauty of it. There is bad in everyone, everything and it’s not as important anymore when something is soiled to this point. It loses its purpose and its beauty fades as glass reflects on its surface.

Gods in Decay is a tricky one…it feels like some commentary on the fact that earth was dying and our god or gods didn’t help us when we needed it even though all of this is our fault, the collective would need help to rebuild yet the higher power never fought for the world and hid from the world, from the people fighting for their lives. It’s a question we all ask ourselves at least once in our life, why is there suffering, pain, and death, yes, we learn from it but why aren’t the gods helping us with these disasters, human or not?

We have this ballad-esque song called Give it Up or Give it All, the constant equilibrium inside of us when face our troubles, our sins, and our problems at hand. Sometimes you want to fight side by side with all your might but sometimes you want to give up, you had enough of pain in your life, or you have caused too much pain, getting through it or surviving is not for everyone, you must have this inner light inside of you and a strong will to persevere. We have all faced this, pretty much every single day of our lives. You never know what fight people are fighting inside, you might never know.

The first single we got a few months ago was ‘’Ghost in the Mist’’, it’s a song they played on their short Eastern Canadian trek in the autumn of 2023 including a stop here in Montreal. I thought it was great and something a bit different from their usual material. I have been listening to the single ever since the YouTube video was uploaded. It’s a live version of the song from the Mad with Power Fest and I believe there is some video material from their show here but I am not entirely sure, to be honest, but the venue seems quite familiar. I know the song is part of the whole story, the concept album yet the way I see it is about something more like a myth, folklore in a sense. We have all heard about ghosts in the mist in the ephemeral articles in magazines and whatnot, is it real or just fantasy? We might never know but it’s something that has boggled the human mind for centuries.

Seeking Vengeance is just like an old force coming back, something unearthed after centuries, taking back what is rightfully theirs. A bit like Mother Nature coming back to claim the planet that humans have tomfooleries throughout centuries and humanity. This unseen hand is angry, the fate of the people at hand is doomed at best and there is no pity when it comes to vengeance in the eyes of the beholder. The most precise lyrics from the album in my honest opinion anyway.

Blood Empress is the unrelenting conclusion of this story, sun and steel will overcome blood and flesh anyway, the world is run over by the machines, it was no match, the price was blood and death and the fallen will rot on this planet while technology and artificial intelligence will overrun everything is in path, far and wide. You might have the brightest human minds on the planet, by this point, the sentient mechanical beings are too much and have thought about everything in advance, it’s like playing chess while the humans are playing checkers. So what is a planet that is completely dominated by artificial intelligence for the rest of the world, it’s a brave new world, well not so much.

I mean this is the way I see it, I am not the best at deciphering lyrics but this is what it means to me. After reading the lyrics, and listening to the albums several times, this is what I understand. So what do we do if we ever face the Rise of the Machines, the rise of AI in everything, creating life with technology? This is something people have asked themselves for years and it’s through constant debate. The collective facing a humanity that has already destroyed the planet, is their redemption after all, or is too late to turn back time? It’s not the human era anymore, that’s for sure.

What an interesting concept though, they are branched out to something else than the Matriarch duology/trilogy from the last decade or so. They decided to write some riveting lyrics about a very precarious situation, it’s a fascinating tangent for the band but it fits the band and the research they do when they write their lyrics very well. Unleash the Archers is one of the most creative contemporary word smiths not only in Power Metal but in all of Metal. Diving deep in science fiction, a dystopian world, and tyrannical and frightening technology is something I was not expecting. They have already some great themes in the last few albums with time travel, space-time continuums, and whatnot but now, they have reached the apex (pun intended) of their very existence as a bad and this is just the beginning for probably the best Canadian metal bands out there, ever.

“Phantoma” is the album of a lifetime, Power Metal to its core yet very diversified and mature. This will be an album you will talk about for years and even decades after its release, I promise it.