The Phantom A.D. - Torment or Treats (and Torment)
In a months-long spree only just begun, the Phantom A.D.'s Horrorween Tour will storm its maliciously lunatic way across Norman Rockwell's placid states. (Have a care, square ones: Attending these sinister soirees may well bring premature persishment to the unhip.)
Included on the invasion itinerary are Texas, Louisiana, Alabama, Florida, Oregon, Washington, Georgia, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Kansas, and the rocker-from-beyond's own California.
For the monsterman, every night is All Hallow's Eve. It's like 1993 movie Groundhog Day, but if it had been scripted by Curt Siodmak.
A chill gust chases off twisted and spindly tree branches' remaining withered leaves; witching-hour streets are barren, save for ghosts busying themselves with grotesque diversions; a pale blood-moon shines unforgiving glare on the innocent orb mortal men call Earth...
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And The Phantom A.D. couldn't be happier -- in the cruelest of manners. As a composer, he cleverly interlaces forbidden poetry and charging Rock'n'Roll birthed in some netherworldly jukebox. His frenzied guitar summons forth a remorselessly-lashed, phantasmagoric creature stitched from fret-stranglers who preceded, and who knew how best to contrive raucous infectiousness.
To all that, he ladles on idiosyncratic manueverings that ring precisely right.
And in his guttural intonations, one hears the testimony of a man who not only sat through innumerable drive-in scare-flicks, but probably dove into the screen to gleefully abet the deviance.
As this writer puts quill to parchment, crazed acolytes in slated environs will soon revel in the straight-from-the-fridge madness he unleashes at perilous volumes. Finger-popping bizzaritude can be reliably predicted to ravish ears, whether they dig it or not.
His crusade of the freakish has sordid history. A part-time substitute teacher, Harley Isaac Rother intuits his destiny is to tear apart temporal distance from eerie dimensions uncharted, through Rock'n'Roll that respects no reasonable stricture.
Albums documenting his dire mission include 2015's The Unspeakable Horror of Isaac Rother and the Phantoms and The Terrifying Return of Isaac Rother and the Phantoms. Later assuming his rightful title, The Phantom A.D., he issued The Phantom A.D. Plays Ghoulish Rock'n'Roll and this year's Revenge of the Phantom. (All were released by Rock N Rhythm Records.)
As ever, in that latest wax, The Phantom A.D.'s cobwebbed, latex-monster hood features darkness as a 24/7 proposition. Splenetic chords race like risen-from-beneath, demolition terrors, hip to the ways of lost avenues Rock'n'Roll. Swirling his cape while surfing atop a saucer, The Phantom A.D. growls enunciations that bespeak horrors good men know not.
Martin Milner scrambles for exit, though Mickey "Bip Bop Boom" Hawks and Shadowman Link stick around where the action is.
In 2025, he greeted creature cogniscenti, shared his swinging hideousness, and mongered merch at the Famous Monsters of Filmland convention in Pennsylvania. That costumed spectacle befit a man whose prodigious lurkings amidst midnight spook-show haunts feature catchy songs suited variously to mausoleum exhumations, TV cathode rays, and beach party bingo.
In a Facebook post at the time, the caped archfiend said: "This is such an honor to be included, given the incredible legacy of Famous Monsters. In the pre-internet world, Famous Monsters Of Filmland was THE place to learn about horror movies. Its legacy is unmatched."
Those souls thronging to The Phantom A.D.'s Horrorween Tour 2026 appearences may snap cell-phone photos, but should not be flabbergasted when they later find that his image has not been preserved.
Videos: live in San Francisco (2025, 10:50) "Chainsaw Rock" "I Go Where the Party Takes Me" "The Brain that Wouldn't Die" "MK Ultra Rock" "Even Sasquatch Wants to Rock"
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