Phantasmal Abyss celebrates Winter’s 80th
- Bleeding Priest
- Mar 1
- 3 min read
February 27, 2026
Winters Tavern
Pacifica, CA
I’ve covered Phantasmal Abyss on this site before but hey, what can I say? I like them. This time it’s at Winters Tavern in Pacifica. A place I have some interesting history with. Let’s talk about that first.
It was 2013, my old band The Cutthroats 9 were playing with Black Cobra (remember them?) in a series of shows we did together. In CT9 I would sometimes smash my drum kit at the end of the show. We played Slims the night before and there was no way I was pulling something like that there but Winters? That place SCREAMS “Smash your drums!”
So at the end of the set I picked up my kick drum and swung it from left to right knocking everything in its way down. I did it so often I had it down to a science. My entire kit would be annihilated in seconds with minimal damage. At the end of the carnage I would always toss my kick drum over my left shoulder. So I proceeded….
I forgot there was a wall right behind me and even more so, there was a circular window directly behind my head. My kick drum bounced off that window like a pinball and landed at the front of the stage. I turned to see a spider web crack across the window. HOLY SHIT!
I turned to look at the crowd and not a single soul had noticed what I had done to the window. So I acted like I hadn’t noticed either.
Fifteen, twenty minutes later I hear the owner flipping the fuck out outside about the window. I heard him shout “Did anyone see who did this?” He was under the impression that someone had thrown a beer bottle at it from the outside. CASE CLOSED! They’ve since fixed it and I’ve since stopped with the “Keith Moon” act.
Ok, now for the show at hand. It was more of an event celebrating 80 years of Winters. “80 YEARS OF CHEERS 1946-2026” Bands started at 4 pm. When I arrived there was this Godawful jam band on. I mean, I get it, in a band like that looseness is expected but these men didn’t have their shit together in any way shape or form.
To make things worse some dude came up and started blaring into a saxophone. It was like adding spoiled lettuce to a shit sandwich. And he was trying to pull off this Jon Zorn thing. Key word “trying”. If that wasn’t bad enough the drummer and bassist kicked into “Rappers Delight”. If it wasn’t for Hellhunter bassist Satanik Grizzly working the bar I would’ve called it a night before it even began. He got me through.
Phantasmal Abyss were on next and what a relief, SONG STRUCTURE!! I usually like to talk about the sound in my reviews but Winters is as DIY as it gets and it’s basically “take it or leave it”. So I’ll skip that part of my review. They played great and the crowd seemed to be dying for something real as much as I was.
Speaking of the crowd there was a decent turnout. It was an unusually hot late February day/night so a lot of people were outside drinking on the deck. But as their set progressed the place filled up. Phantasmal Abyss had a handful of fans there as well with one of them shouting out “I love you Dara” between songs.
The Abyss tore through about 45 minutes worth of songs. They’re improving every time I see them. Dara’s becoming quite the accomplished lead player. Her rhythm playing could use a tad tightening up but considering she’s handling vocals at the same time as playing these complex riffs she does a marvelous job. All three of them did a marvelous job on their respective instruments. The crowd loved them.
My only suggestion is they add a slow or mid-tempo tune to their setlist. It will work so well and be very effective amidst all the up-tempo blast beat laden songs that dominated the set. They have slow parts here or there but it’s usually accompanied with a flurry of double bass.
It would be so rad to hear a slower tune thrown in the middle of the set that had predominantly single kick to break the chaos up. With Dara’s interesting approach to song writing I’m sure they could come up with something really cool. But this is a minor detail. They rocked the place with their brand of Black/Death Metal and I was satisfied. I got the fuck out!
–Bleeding Priest
