PHANTOM
- Metal Militia
- Aug 19, 2025
- 9 min read
// From within the bestial borders of Guadalajara lies one of the greatest modern thrash bands; a young and hungry force to be reckoned with, PHANTOM strike with a vicious ferocity, taking influence from the old masters yet keeping a fresh spirit alive and well! Their new album, “Tyrants of Wrath,” is described as “48 minutes of sonic lacerations, total death, lethal steel, and heavy metal absolute power,” soon to be available on April 25th. I was honored to get an early listen of the album and I can confirm that it lives up to its description! Below is the great discussion I had with PHANTOM leader J.C. García. Enjoy! //
Hello! Would you mind giving a quick introduction on yourself and PHANTOM?
↪ Hello! and thanks for the space. I'm J.C. García: guitars/vocals, founder, and main songwriter in PHANTOM, a Mexican band formed in 2021.
It’s not often that I’m truly impressed by a young band, especially in the realm of thrash where everyone seems to piggyback off big names like SLAYER or KREATOR. In the case of PHANTOM, however, you sound fresh and truly authentic. What do you attribute this to?
↪ To be completely honest, I don't really think we are reinventing the wheel here. Sure, we are trying to find our own sound – or I don’t know if you can hear one yet – but we definitely worship the old gods and we play the music we like according to the old school sound we love. One thing I can say we do though, is that we mix and incorporate a ton of old school metal sounds and styles into our music, so it's like a mixture of speed metal, thrash metal, traditional metal with influences from the NWOBHM/FWOSHM, first wave black metal, deathrash/death metal, etc. So we end up with an uncompromising mixture of sounds which lets us play more in this whole old school spectrum without falling into just a singular category or thing.
In a similar vein, I find it more and more difficult for thrash bands to write riffs that sound new since the majority of the great ones were written nearly 40 years ago. It seems like you guys don’t really struggle with this on record, so I’m curious as to how you go about writing songs. What’s your process for separating ideas that are good and bad?
↪ I just mainly sit at home with the guitars first, come out with a riff salad, and from there we grab what we like, make another riff salad, and so on. After that, we work on the drums, then the bass, then lyrics, and ta-da! Some songs take longer, some we can write in one day – we love the process of songwriting.
Since PHANTOM was formed while you were still in high school, are you in university now? If so, what are you studying?
↪ Yes, I started PHANTOM when I was 15 or 16 years old, during the pandemic. Now I'm 19 and entering my first year of university; I'm currently studying design.
Speaking of high school, how did you convince everyone to join a band like PHANTOM? I know you recruited old friends Sael Chávez and Gael Rodríguez in the beginning; were they also into this kind of music?
↪ Gael wasn't at all into it, but he loved to play drums, so he joined as soon as I asked. As for Sael, he was a bit into it but he was kind of a more classic rock guy. As for Harel, he is the guy that, from the beginning, was more into classic thrash and metal like me, but he also likes a lot of other music genres. I've always led the musical direction of the band and how I want it to sound. Finding musicians into this type of music here is hard, so if I wanted this to work out, I had to look for more people who I knew played instruments and then start getting them into the music.
Furthermore, Sael left before the recording of your first album, “Handed to Execution,” and Gael left after. What led to their departures from the band? How did you find Raír Tavizón and J.P. Alatorre to fill their roles?
↪ Well, the case with the first bassist is that he never really knew how to play well, but he would yap and yap that he was a bass smartass. We tolerated him for a bit, but then things started getting out of hand when he started doing drugs and drinking alcohol excessively and just focusing on "rockstarism" before we even had the demo, and also becoming kind of an asshole. He also was this weird weeb kind of guy and wanted to start taking directions in a weird way so we kicked his ass out of the band. As for Gael, it was a totally different situation and we are on good terms with him – he was just taking another direction in life and he wanted to focus on his career as a video game designer type thing, and we totally support him. The energy and excitement and chemistry wasn't really there anymore, so it was for the best.
As someone who does rhythm guitar, lead guitar, and lead vocals, what challenges do you face when playing live? Are you someone who struggles a little with handling multiple roles or does it come easily to you? Based on your insane riffage, I’d imagine singing over these kinds of riffs is quite the challenge!
↪ It's definitely a challenge. I practice for a lot of time to be able to play at that speed and also sing, but I really really like it. If it was easy, it wouldn't be metal.
When it comes to lead guitar, how do you and Harel Olguín choose who plays what and where? Do you guys ever write parts for each other to play?
↪ We write our own parts and say good luck to each other – Harel is more of a shredding guy, and I'm more of a neoclassical/melodic solo type guy. We like to combine both things, especially because we aim to give a certain sound to the whole band with leads that sound like ""vampire"" music, I don’t know how else to describe it, just something you would listen to in an old Castlevania game.
Something I’ve noticed while listening to your catalog a bunch in preparation for this interview is how much emphasis you place on having strong melodic sections in your songs. A lot of thrash bands nowadays are laser-focused on the sheer brutality of the music, but you combine that with parts you can hum along to. Was there any particular set of influences that brought this about, or is it just your nature to write songs like this?
↪ I think that can be connected with the whole classic heavy metal influences we have, and what I mentioned in the last answer: the whole "Castlevania"-type thing, we love to do that. To add elements of that to songs that are so fast gives them more depth and fresh air and some real old school feeling.
I meant to mention this a few questions back, but your vocals at times remind me of another Mexican metal legend, Daniel Corchado of THE CHASM. His music sort of taps the metal vein in the same spots as PHANTOM’s; were you influenced at all by his music?
↪ I know of them, but I have never listened to them, so I wouldn't say they have influenced me. I don't consider myself a super vocalist, but I take a lot of influence from Sheepdog from RAZOR, Tom Araya, Pat Lind from MORBID SAINT, etc.
How is the metal scene in Mexico? I’ll admit, I really only know about the older acts like GEHENNA, MEGATON, TRANSMETAL, LUZBEL (who were supposed to be in this issue!), and some “newer” bands like the aforementioned THE CHASM, CENOTAPH, ACERUS, etc. Are certain Mexican states (like your own Jalisco) better than others for metal?
↪ I don't think there are better states than others for metal here, we definitely have a lot of up and coming bands here and also a lot of good old bands like the ones you mentioned! I personally know MEGATON because they have been friends with my grandpa since the ‘80s – he used to be very involved in the scene and he had a huge record collection with a ton of rarities. It's a rich scene that unfortunately gets overshadowed by their own people; a lot of people here see that someone is doing well and they immediately start throwing shit, and I don't say that because we deal with it (because fortunately that barely happens to us), but more because we see how this happens to a lot of friends and other bands. The Mexican scene could stand out a lot but it's self-sabotaging and full of drama and bullshit.
You’ve said before that PHANTOM most likely won’t be playing across the border in the United States any time soon. Is this because of safety concerns or because of the recent strengthening of travel visas in the U.S.?
↪ Yeah, mainly because the visa process has become so tedious. We all have visas except for our other guitarist Harel, so we can't really foresee when we will be able to go.
If you were to play in the U.S., what cities would you want to target? Has PHANTOM played any shows outside of Mexico yet?
↪ I guess the big and medium cities! We haven't played outside of Mexico yet, but we will go on our first Eurotour this year!!
Tell me about Rampage, the fanzine associated with PHANTOM.
↪ It's a project I love, but I barely have time to do it! I have always loved old zines and I wanted to try and make one by myself!! I plan on putting out an issue 3, but I'm not sure when.
You have a recurring skeleton mascot across all of your releases. Does it have a name?
↪ Wilbur!!! Our beloved ghostly vampyre lord!!
You’ve said in other interviews that while you think digital/streaming is the best way for music to get around in the Internet age, you love physically OWNING things like records. When your first album was pressed on vinyl, how did that make you feel? Was there a sense of pride in knowing people could hold a physical version of your music?
↪ It was very sentimental; we cried like bitches when we opened that door and also made a lil’ houseparty to celebrate. Physical music is so important to keep alive – it's really owning a piece of that, and it lets you see through way more with photos, inserts, lyrics, the cover art up close, the quality – everything is better.
On the subject of physical releases, you’ve partnered with High Roller Records for your upcoming new album, “Tyrants of Wrath.” Did you approach them or did they approach you? How has it been working with a label known for reissues of older material?
↪ They approached us after they listened to our EP from last year, "Transylvanian Nightmare," and after some talks, we liked the idea a lot and we signed with them. They have treated us excellently and we couldn't be more happy! They treat us with respect and integrity and have helped us out a ton, so we appreciate this whole thing a lot, and it also makes us happy to be able to provide our music in the highest of quality in formats to more people around the world.
Speaking of the new album… I think it absolutely crushes! I thought it might be hard to follow such a strong body of work with “Handed to Execution” and the “Transylvanian Nightmare” EP, but it seems like “Tyrants of Wrath” was done with ease! What are your favorite songs on the new album?
↪ Thanks! I think my favorite songs are “Thunderbeast,” “Violent Invasion,” and “Nimbus.”
You have a song on the new album called “Nimbus,” where your vocals have this doomy quality that reminds me of Albert Witchfinder of REVEREND BIZARRE. What made you change your vocal style for that song in particular?
↪ It's a song that I wrote dedicated to my other grandfather, Jorge García, who passed away in late 2022. He would always tell me to name a song “Nimbus,” so I finally did it and I wanted to go with a very old school heavy metal type song inspired by Swedish bands like HEAVY LOAD and GOTHAM CITY, and also early IRON MAIDEN and PENTAGRAM.
You have an upcoming tour to support the new album with Brazilian black/speed metallers EVILCULT in Europe. Are you fans of their music or were you just billed together? Who will be supporting you for your Mexican dates in May and July?
↪ I consider myself a fan! I have liked their music for some years and at first, it was planned for us to go with another band we don’t even know, but then it was changed to EVILCULT by the booking agency and it was a very cool announcement!!! As for the Mexican shows, in CDMX, the bands supporting will be: HARDROCKER, AHVAWE, STARFORCE, and RAPED GOD 666, and for our home city show it will be: FLORES Y FUEGO, DEMON SWORD, CALL OV THE VOID, and MEDICAL NEGLIGENCE.
What’s on the horizon for PHANTOM? I know you’ve got Keep it True Rising in October, but anything else we should be looking forward to?
↪ Well! First of all, the release of the new album on April 25th! Then we have the Mexican presentation shows, and afterwards, the Latin Steel Over Europe tour during September and October!
Thanks for entertaining my questions! Any final words?
↪ Thanks to you for the space!! HEED THE IRON LAW!!!
Interviewed: February of 2025
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