Acceptance is back with its follow-up to 2003 EP “Black Lines To Battlefields” with “Phantoms” due to release tomorrow.
“Phantoms” lacks quality lyrics and variation in style but is overall a good listen.
The album’s first track, “Take Cover,” is an ironic omen for the rest of the album. Each of “Phantoms” tracks are monotonous on first listen despite each track starting differently.
The problem with “Phantoms” is by the time each track reaches its chorus, the songs begin to sound like modern punk rock bands such as The Ataris and Good Charlotte.
However, it’s not just the album’s chorus that could hurt its release, “Phantoms” lyrics could also hinder sales.
Lyrics such as “You’re the only one I would take a shot on,” ” I wanted to be anything different” and “I’m getting over you” will produce a cliché grimace on the faces of anyone who actually pay attention to the songs.
The songs are short and the lyrics appear to have been taken from a distraught high school boy’s journal – almost every song is about a girl. Expect the next album to be about football games and prom tuxedos.
Taken chronologically the singer goes through three relationships aspects: love, lost love and wooing for love.
Though each song basically sounds like the last, the strange 80-second instrumental track “Ad Astra Per Aspera,” which plays in the middle of the 12-track album, seems as if it was placed there to jolt listeners out of the bored stupor the first five tracks cause.
Perhaps the only reason to listen to the album would be for the last two songs “Permanent” and “Glory/Us.”
They are the highlights of the album. These two tracks are sung and written differently than the other tracks, they are not about girls and each has a catchy chorus.
“Phantoms” is not a bad album, it just lacks the one facet that separates it from the ever-growing list of puck rock albums. It is worth buying, but don’t read the lyrics.
