Please tell us a few words about the new release, about the music on it as a whole or a few words on each track in part. How are you happy with the final release?
"The Reaper's Forge" is our debut demo; 3 tracks of our personal style of malevolent and powerful metal. All bands will nitpick the final results of their releases, but in general we are pleased, and it appears that lots of fans and zines are as well!

How would you describe/label the music on it? Does it sounds like anything we might have heard before?
Black / thrash has been the general consensus, but our musical influences are both broad and deep. At times you might hear Mercyful Fate, at other times you might hear Cryptic Slaughter. Aggression, morbidity and evil are always at the forefront of our minds when we're writing. With that said, I think fans of bands like Witchery, Desaster and Bewitched will easily find something to enjoy in our music.

Where was it recorded and how much time did it take you to record it? Any interesting stories from the recording/producing the material?
All tracking took place in 2014, but the process of writing and recording began in late 2012. Wraith and I are not very interesting people, so no, no interesting stories. Just evil and metal being blasted out.

What can you tell us about the cover artwork? Is there a link between the artwork and the lyrics? What are the topics of your lyrics?
The art was done by our long time friend and associate Seth Bennett, a very talented artist who's also done art for bands like Deathhammer, Faustcoven, Countess, Ares Kingdom and lots more. The art is pretty clearly a depiction of what occurs in the lyrics of the title track of "The Reaper's Forge": the Grim Reaper pounding some white hot black metal into a new scythe blade in order to keep on reapin' on. Our lyrics are about life and death, light and dark. Ceremonies of opposites, you could say.

What do you expect to gain through this release? What are the band's aims at the moment?
Being our debut demo, it serves the same purpose as any other band's debut demo: to get the attention of fans, media and labels. We currently have material recorded for a 7", and lots of other stuff nearly completely recorded, so we would like to find a label to release some of this stuff.

Is there a special format the material is released in? Or is it released in multiple formats? How many copies were pressed?
It's only been made available on cassette format thus far. Any labels that would be interested in re-releasing the demo should feel free to contact us. I don't wish to say how many copies exist, or will exist, as I don't really think that demos should be a "limited edition" thing, broadly speaking. We might release more of them tomorrow, or we might not.

Where and how will you promote this new release?
We have no live gigs planned currently, if that's what you mean. We are content with staying in the studio, but interesting offers from gig promoters will always be entertained.

Where can we order it from?
We are currently sold out, but you can check with metal distros around the world for copies. As I said above, we are not yet sure if more copies of this demo will be made available from us. It depends upon the demand. Regardless of whether or not more physical copies will themselves into existence, any interested bangers can stream and download the demo for free from our Bandcamp page.

www.phantasmalmetal.bandcamp.com
www.facebook.com/phantasmalmetal
phantasmalmetal@gmail.com

January 2015