ACRN.COM

By Kayla Chanthavong, Contributor
[604; 2019]
Rating: 7.5/10

Key tracks: “Echoes Of You”, “I Knew You When”, “The Killing Kind”

Three years after the release of Astoria, Marianas Trench grace us with another full-length album, Phantoms. Before this album release, they teased us with three singles: “Echoes of You”, “I Knew You When”, and “Only the Lonely Survive”. And although these songs suitably set the tone, it isn’t until Marianas Trench brings us deeper into the album that we hear more of the moving messages they want to tell us.

Read more: Ten Years Today: Marianas Trench – Masterpiece Theatre

Once again, they’ve embraced the big studio sound, and it does not disappoint. Marianas Trench’s alluring quality is their ingenious creativity when it comes to shifting musical styles within a single song, integrating chorale-like vocals, orchestral movements and pop influences. Through all the crescendos and decrescendos, Marianas Trench knows how to pull you in and make you lose yourself in addicting rhythms and catchy lyrics.

On Phantoms, Marianas Trench create jams like “Wish You Were Here”, “Your Ghost” and “Echoes of You” for the fans that fell in love with their pop sound, and man, they do a kick-ass job. The vocals on Phantoms are articulate enough to be easily understood, learned and sang, and you will definitely find yourself dancing like no one’s watching and recovering from the lethargy of a busy semester. Ballad tracks like “Glimmer” and “The Death of Me” tie the album together, making another dynamic-yet-well-balanced masterpiece of symphonic pop-rock music.

“The Killing Kind” is goosebump-inducing. In one song, all of the musical tricks and treats that Marianas Trench have honed and cultivated throughout their careers are perfectly showcased. The beginning of the song gives us the spooky and low tone that we expect from an album that’s called Phantoms, but it ends on a completely different note, making you think you weren’t even listening to the same song.

If you’re an avid listener of Marianas Trench, then you are aware of how much they’ve changed since their first album, Fix Me. Phantoms represents how life-changing events can teach us valuable lessons about ourselves and how we interact with the people closest to us. In contrast to their previous albums, Phantoms depicts the emotional maturity that Marianas Trench gained as a group of guys who have lived a large part of their lives, touching major milestones like having their own families and building their own careers outside of the group.

Marianas Trench are scheduled to go on another North American tour, and you can find those dates here.

Listen to Phantoms here: