Release Date May 26th, 2026
Format Digital
Genre Heavy Metal
Origin Finland
Phantomy is a Finnish hard rock band featuring Samu Karhu on vocals, Eetu Räsänen and Rasmus Laurila on guitars and backing vocals, Roope Lappalainen on bass, and Herkko Lappalainen on drums and backing vocals. The band gained wider attention after winning a battle of the bands competition in the summer of 2025, with studio time at Purkkistudio in Lapinlahti included as part of the prize. Purkkistudio has operated under Ari Auvinen for more than five decades and has played a long role in the North Savonian underground scene, making it an appropriate location for music rooted in older hard rock and heavy metal traditions.
Phantomy uses a classic twin guitar lineup, gang backing vocals, a firm rhythm section, and a frontman who attacks the material with a coarse upper register. The choices on “First Takes” point straight toward the band’s main influences, linking the sleaze of Mötley Crüe, the galloping heavy metal of Iron Maiden, and the comic hard rock of Spinal Tap. This EP offers an early view of Phantomy as a performing band, although original songs remain necessary before its songwriting character can be judged in full.
Released digitally through Inverse Records, “First Takes” contains three covers, “Live Wire,” “2 Minutes To Midnight,” and “Tonight I’m Gonna Rock You Tonight,” recorded by Ari Auvinen, then mixed and mastered by Rasmus Laurila. The production has warmth and definition, placing the guitars at the front while the drums strike with enough body and the bass fills the lower range without turning the mix bloated. Karhu’s vocals bring a rough hard rock edge, and the backing voices add the gang shout character required by this material. Phantomy leaves the original structures largely intact, focusing its changes on guitar tone, vocal attack, pace, and a heavier rhythm sound.
Across the three songs, the twin guitars handle riffs and leads with proper separation, while the rhythm section stays locked to the movement of the originals and adds a firmer metallic strike. The selections belong together, and the production prevents the EP from becoming a loose collection of rehearsal takes or disposable novelty covers. There is discipline in the playing, personality in the performances, and little wasted space. “First Takes” presents Phantomy in good form, though its value lies mainly as a snapshot of the band’s influences and current sound, not as a complete definition of what it can create with its own material.
|7.7
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