Phantom Winter Interview

1.For those that have never heard of you before, can you tell us a little bit about the band?

Phantom Winter are Andreas (guitar, screams) and Christof (drums) from Omega Massif plus Christian (growls), Martin (bass) and David (guitar). We play some kind of music we like to call „winterdoom“.



Soon you will release your debut-album new album, how would you describe the musical sound that is presented on the recording?

The sound is a rough and harsh one with a lot of dirt and without shiny effects and super hip sounds. We love it in your face. Listen to it very loud and you will know, what I mean.

3.The band formed out of the ashes of 'Omega massif', what was the decision behind disbanding that group and starting up a new band?

Nine years of Omega Massif was enough. I started Phantom Winter as a sideproject a week before Omega Massif split up so this became my main band. And I am fine with this decision now, even if I was really sad about the death of O.M. Now I have the chance to write the music 100% as I like it, that's a new but also very cool experience.

4.In 'Omega Massif' the music was all instrumental, what was the decision behind using lyrics in the new band?

There is no sense in copying our own band. Omega Massif is gone and was awesome as it was, but Phantom Winter has it's very own style even if you can hear the connection to O.M.

5.What are some of the lyrical topics and subjects the band explores with the music?

„Wintercvlt“ for example is about sheep who follow including some kind of ironic twist with the line „Destroy all cvlts, obey the wintercvlt!“. „Svffer“ is about the german way to accept their Nazi-past and the Holocaust. No one should ever forget, what happened. It is important to remember the Shoa forever. „Corpses Collide“ deals with the progress of becoming an adult. A lot of cool kids become real conservative and stubborn people and it is a reminder to myself, that I try to avoid that. „Finster Wald“ is about NSBM and bands who play with nazi-stuff to be very evil and cool and whatever. Fuck them.

6.What is the meaning and inspiration behind the name 'Phantom Winter'?

Christof and I love the word „Phantom“ and we always wanted to do something with it, a song, an album, whatever. So we played a bit around and came up with Phantom Winter and we knew...that's it!

7.What are some of the best shows that the band has played so far and also how would you describe your stage performance?

Well, haha, we played two shows and both were wonderful because there were a lot of nice people and even from the first to the second show we felt the big progress of becoming a band and playing as a band and that was really important for us.

8.Do you have any touring or show plans for the future?

We will play about twenty shows this year including the wonderful VOID-festival, the Stateless-Society-Festival, the Golden Antenna-Summit in Leipzig and a lot of other shows with a lot of friends. We are really looking forward to every single show!

9.On a worldwide level how has the feedback been so far to your music by fans of sludge and doom metal?

The feedback was awesome. Both of our shows were kinda sold out, the people ordered more than 200 copies in less than one preorder day and the most important thing: a lot of people let us know how they appreciate our work and the development the music made from one band to the other. We are very happy that we seem to have a real fanbase even before our first album came out. Our hope is that we can fulfill the big trust a lot of awesome pepple seem to have in us.

10.Where do you see the band heading into musically during the future?

Listen to CVLT and you know our musical future. Progression is not our kind of thing.

11.What are some of the bands or musical styles that have had an influence on your music and also what are you listening to nowadays?

I am listening to nearly everything but Ragga and Dancehall stuff. The variety of music goes from old Nasum to Napalm Death to a lot of Bossa Nova and Jazz-Stuff to HipHop. I don't care about musical boundaries and I am happy about it. The influence is everywhere.

12.What are some of your non musical interests?

My wife and my kids are the center of my life. When I find the time I try to read a lot (lately „What I loved“ - Siri Hustvedt; „Inherent Vice“ - Thomas Pynchon; „Couples“ - John Updike) an I love doing sports and watching American Football. Ah, and I love Scotch Whisky.

13.Before we wrap up this interview, do you have any final words or thoughts?
Thanks for the interest! Check out our music, it's not that bad.