We are going back to February of 2024, when the album If Blood Comes First was released by Dallas based Happy Phantom. This five piece is made up of songwriter Jackie Legos (vocals, guitars), Zack Bigalow (drums), Colby Sias (percussion), Josh Prater (keyboards, synth), Phillip Sozansky (bass guitar) and Brendan Ladan (guitars).
It is important that the first track off an album grabs your attention, and “A Stranger Walking Shadows Through the Dark” has this in spades, from the sparkling intro, which continues through, and emotion filled jangling guitars, that harkens back to The Cure. Even Lego’s vocals remind one of Robert Smith, lending it to the feel of the legendary album Pornography, which will continue throughout. The title track is a swirling and echoing piece with the synths at the front in a winding classical soundscape domination, only broken by the vocals and occasional guitar. The lyrics in “If First Comes Blood” are beautifully poetic, and where does a relationship go to after we pass this mortal coil?
‘Waiting for the night and captured by the moon saving our goodbyes it’s over much too soon there’s nowhere left to hide when she comes to my bed with nothing but a lie dancing in my head…‘ – If First Comes Blood
“No Illusions” has great bass lines and the mood of the whole track is almost joyful, yet the lyrics tell of a loss where one cannot stay as the situation is eating them up, but they want to because of unreasonable hope. Let me guide you to track six, “I Dare To Love You,” with its booming drums rolling and subtle guitar. The conjoined voices could be a coven’s chant and the wonderful imagery of dancing on graves in a passionate tryst with a ghostly lover. The rangy guitar work is a throwback to early Cult in the track “Lust,” which is about the lack of emotion compared to love that requires as much give as take.
If you haven’t guessed, If Blood Comes First is about finding another dark soul that completes yours, bring the ultimate overwhelming gothic romance and the devastation of being bereft of that person, which leaves you a husk of your former self that yearns for what was lost. I think this album is heavily inspired by real life and also The Crow, which is about devotion, but on a deeper level, trying to be worthy enough to embrace love in death or knowing when you have to let go of those feelings that drag you under the waves of grief. Legos has professed that this is his favourite album so far, and we can hear why. If Blood Comes First is a brooding and heart wrenching ode to love, in the ideal sanctuary of a forever romance, set to a gothic serenade by Happy Phantom.
Onyx Music Reviews 