Midnight Phantom are a duo from Hanover Germany that are playing in a melodic hard rock style.
Written by: gdmonline
ARTIST: Midnight Phantom
ALBUM: Murder On 42nd Street
LABEL: Bandcamp
SERIAL: Self Released
YEAR: 2023
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: Germany
LINEUP: Stephan Wsintek – all vocals * Christian Heimbucher – All instruments
TRACK LISTING: 01 Danger Zone * 02 Rock ‘N’ Roll Time Machine * 03 Peacemaker * 04 Always Remember * 05 Eyes Of Medusa * 06 Night Stalker * 07 Dream Of You * 08 Starting All Over Again * 09 When The Cats Are Away * 10 Girl From MTV * 11 Tonight * 12 The Final Anthem * 13 Murder On 42nd Street
RATING: 85/100
WEBLINKS: Site Link
Background
Midnight Phantom are a duo from Hanover Germany that are playing in a melodic hard rock style. There’s also a hint of 80’s European metal in there too amidst the all too obvious American influences, plus a good mix of guitars and keyboards. Midnight Phantom have been around since pre Covid times, with ‘Murder On 42nd Street’ representing their third album, following on from ‘L. A Nights’ (2021) and ‘Hollywood Dreams’ (2020).
The Songs
There are many reference points throughout, but mostly the album settles into a 1980’s groove that is hard to ignore. The tippy tappy synthwork on the opener ‘Danger Zone’ sets the scene for what is to come. A super opener for sure. This reminded me of Swiss rockers The Order from their brilliant ‘1986’ album. The duo are fixated on taking us on a chronological joyride if ‘Rock ‘N’ Roll Time Machine’ is anything to go by.
‘Peacemaker’ is at the harder end of the melodic rock spectrum. Quite dense sounding, similar to bands like Aidean and Syndia. ‘Always Remember’ takes the mid-tempo route, this one didn’t quite the mark for me, much better is ‘Eyes Of Medusa’ which is another track to strike a chord upon first listen, with sharp guitar and ever present synths floating in the backdrop.
‘Night Stalker’ is reminiscent of all those second tier metal bands out of 1980’s Germany. There were so many back then. ‘Dream Of You’ is the duos first ballad, it’s more on the power ballad side of things. ‘Starting All Over Again’ returns to a racier style of melodic rock, chugging riffs, anthem chants plus those ivories hiding in the background. ‘When The Cats Are Away’ sounds like Poison on steroids with all that chantalong action going on.
‘Girl From MTV’ could be considered to be an American hair metal blast from the past. Not quite Van Halen, more like Mr Big tearing it up. ‘Tonight’ is the second ballad, this time an acoustic piece, another blast from the hair metal era circa 1990-1991. ‘The Final Anthem’ is one of the shorter tracks here, it’s an instrumental only. Midnight Phantom go out guns blazing on the 6 minute plus title track ‘Murder On 42nd Street’,
In Summary
Midnight Phantom give us a few good moments here. It’s pretty solid for what is essentially two guys releasing an independent album in a genre most of us enjoy. By the way, they are not on. Discogs yet, but for those of you wanting to have a closer listen on YouTube Music, here is the Link. Enjoy.
Video
Danger Zone
Eyes Of Medusa
Starting All Over Again
