The frame of this album is a few days after the end of the Kerygma events. The war is certainly over, but it is a more personal war that presents itself to our faceless protagonist.
No longer supporting the worship of his victorious men who now see him as an idol that one would follow into the abyss. Convinced that this blind devotion will soon give way to submission.
No longer tolerating this betrayal to his own soul by seeing his men take the same path as the defeated enemy… Becoming himself the symbol he had fought… He will isolate himself, and in a last look at the rising sun, will slice his hearth in the hope of never hoping again.
It is in this spiritual purgatory that Phantasma takes place. Halfway between life and death, thus becoming omniscient, seeing his past and future lives, seeing the future of a world he has so well known, our fallen hero, lost in the depths of his being, divided between schizophrenic delirium, infinite sadness, nostalgia and visceral rage will then have to make a crucial choice: to immerse oneself in the sweetness of infinity, or to fight to live in a world that he despises and where he no longer has a place.
If Kerygma marked the musical mutation of Verset Zero, Phantasma today definitely drives the nail. It is an album resolutely deep, black, elegant, with a touch of melancholy and sadness. This album is not lost in various musical references, it is an album of Funeral Doom Industrial and in a broader sense of Post Metal. Period.
Phantasma was also designed for Live. With pieces cut for the stage with the idea of getting listeners to exhale their darkest emotions during this deep ritual.
The voice is sometimes dismal and deep, sometimes heartbreaking, the bass heavy, overwhelming, the guitars aggressive and oppressive, the drums are martial. The overall atmosphere of the album is abysmal and oppressive. The idea of Verset Zero on this album is to play with opposition. Create a work resolutely depressive and black, but at the same time elegant and seductive. Life, death, melody, destruction.
The album is divided into three acts: Déambulation/ Omniscience / Catharsis, they all translate the different feelings of our protagonist. A man between life and death, lost in his dreams, lost in his mind and emotions, in his own history, in a metaphysic world where past and future live together.
First Act: Déambulation: The protagonist is lost in his mind, between two worlds, earring the voices of his past life. Ivar Nikolaisen (Kvelertak) worked on the last track of this act « L’Esprit Noir ».
Second Act: Omniscience: The protagonist knows his new power and starts to live in his new condition of omniscient « Hero ». Between love and hate, across past and future, he can finally understand and explain his disgust with reality. Perturbator worked on the track “Les Horizons Mélancoliques”.
Third Act: Catharsis: The protagonist must make a fatal choice between life and death. Ethan Lee McCarthy (Primitive Man/ Vermin Womb) worked on the last track of this act « Sombre Aurore ».
COLLABORATIONS
Ivar Nikolaisen is the vocalist of punk band The Good The Bad and The Zugly, and in July 2018 he took over as vocalist of hardcore/metal band Kvelertak.
Kvelertak's metal is influenced in particular by hardcore and rock of the 70s, as well as many styles of metal such as traditional heavy, black metal, thrash, stoner, or sludge like Baroness. This singular mixture creates the uniqueness of Kvelertak's style.
In August 2022 their album “Splid” went gold in Norway. They are back this year with their new album “Endling”.
Perturbator is a French synthwave and metal musician from Paris. Since 2012, he has produced music inspired by cyberpunk culture. In 2020 he launched another musical project, Ruin Of Romantics.
In 2022, he released a project in collaboration with Johannes Persson, singer of the group Cult of Luna, named Final Light.
Over the years Pertubator has conquered the public thanks to astonishing tours around the world and collaborations with Health, Carpenter Brut, or Hangman’s Chair.
Rafel Delalande is a tattooist born in Spain. After several years across the world he’s now based in London at the legendary Seven Doors Tattoo shop.
His work brings together pagan myths, traditional techniques and modern inspirations. Influenced among other things by music, cinema, and esotericism. Atheist but coming from a very Catholic family, the devilry he performs has a particular importance in his story.
Geb Le Maudit is a multidisciplinary artist based in Toulouse.
Coming from a graffiti background, he expanded progressively to tattoo and dark arts. Inspired by the aesthetics of funeral art, dark romanticism or illustrations by Gustave Dore, Geb Le Maudit impressively mixes dark macabre elements which repel and at the same time entice the observer.
In September 2023 he present his new exhibition at the Chapelle des Cordeliers in Toulouse.
Ethan Lee McCarthy is a figure from the USA grindcore scene, with Clinging To The Trees Of A Forest Fire, Vermin Womb or with the soul-destroying entity he currently leads, Primitive Man.
Multidisciplinary artist creating audio and visual work. His roots in underground, DIY music scenes has equipped him with two decades worth of grass-roots knowledge, a wealth of experience and a healthy sliver of cynicism. His creative work has taken him all over the world, performing at prestigious festivals and in grimy basements; wherever the art takes him.
Metastazis is a visual creation studio direct by Valnoir since 1999.
The primary goal of the studio was basically to provide quality visuals for various extreme music scenes, and now to steer the ship into less explored artistic territories. Metastazis worked also as videoclip director, book editor, or artistic director. He worked with bands as Behemoth, Laibach, SunnO))), The Body or Watain.
Loris Accaries is a French multidisciplinary artist based in London, UK.
He graduated from MoPA in 2011 with the short animated film TENTATION, Memento Mori and has worked internationally since, specialising in content creation for the entertainment, luxury/fashion and advertising industries.
James Plotkin is well-known as a highly respected engineer and producer, and spends his week mastering and mixing releases for artists of all professional levels.
While he has worked on major releases and GRAMMY-winning soundtracks, he still holds the art of DIY close to his heart, and welcomes opportunities to work with obscure artists and “difficult” recordings. It’s all part of the challenge that keeps him devoted to music and sound, and the constant evolution of how it interacts with and influences the human condition.
Lola Rossi is a French media artist, living in Paris and working internationally.
She investigates the analogy between human memories and digital capture and storage, this, mostly using experimental film and photography. Then, she combined her technical skills to experiment filming and photographing with new technologies (XR, VR, LED screens). She lived and worked in Berlin (DE), London (UK), Marseille (FR) and Paris (FR).
Førtifem is the creative communion between Jesse Daubertes & Adrien Havet.
Both previously working as graphic designers they decided to join their skills under a common name in 2012. Focusing on illustration, mostly on paper and working with four hands, from this union emerged a style midway between striking tattoo drawings and detailed ancient engravings. They worked for bands as Emperor, GGGOLDDD, Rammstein, Carpenter Brut or Regarde Les Hommes Tomber.
Asphyx has been tattooing designs inspired by pop culture, 90s cinema, horror, fantasy and even video games after an apprenticeship in a shop in the center of Paris.
Worked in a black style that mixes fine lines, dotwork and engraving, its motifs leave a morbid and sad impression despite the variety of his influences.
Passionate about extreme music since childhood, Asphyx works also in collaboration with artists from the world of music, for merchandising or album covers.