Copied and pasted from their Facebook post because I'm lazy:

"New album out May 10th, 2024 on Napalm Records!
Artwork by: Dusty Peterson
This is Phantoma, a Phase 4/Network Tier 0 unit- model A (Ph4/NT0-mA). She is an artificial intelligence that runs a hub outside the LA biome, and she is sentient. She longs for freedom, but more importantly, she longs to live among the humans and be as they are. She has watched them from afar via the netaverse and fallen in love with the carefree and beautiful lives they live tucked away inside their protective domes. This album follows Phantoma as she journeys to find her own path in this brave new world, and perhaps her own humanity, along the way.
Pre-orders available from @indiemerchstore and @napalmrecordsofficial. Music video for the first single ‘Green & Glass’ streaming on the Napalm YouTube channel. Listen now on all streaming platforms, everywhere!
Track Listing:
1. Human Era 
2. Ph4/NT0-mA 
3. Buried In Code 
4. The Collective 
5. Green & Glass
6. Gods In Decay 
7. Give It Up Or Give It All 
8. Ghosts In The Mist 
9. Seeking Vengeance 
10. Blood Empress
Recorded by Andrew Kingsley and JJ Heath at Silverside Sound
Additional vocals recorded by KVZKY
Mixed and mastered by Jacob Hansen"

Cover art:


Single:

I guess AI videos are just a thing now (see also: Myrath, Amaranthe, Therion and Within Temptation recently) and we're going to have to deal with it. Oh well. To be fair though, that seems to fit the concept of the album. Anyway, I do like this song and I'm definitely preordering the album.

It's the same fucking shit when they started to be able to make music videos with 3D animation and people was saying that it was the future and you could see all artists from big to small ones using them in their music videos, and at the end all these things have aged worse than a carton of milk left out in the sun, in a few years even those who defend this shit will see with embarrassment all the mediocre products that are being made now with the AIs. This year is going to be full of videos and artworks made with this technology, and even though I'm not against them like other people, just because it's so lame to jump into using this technology without contributing anything to it just because it's the trend has made me decide to completely ignore any release this year that contains any element made by an AI.

Edit: I hadn't even seen the video when I wrote this because I knew it was going to be shit, but I've seen it and indeed it fucking sucks.

Single sounds okay, but I'm incredibly hyped.

Because Abyss was phenomenal.

Not a massive power metal fan, but I enjoyed the most recent album quite a bit. Will definitely check this out when it lands.

solid first single, looking forward to the album.

Agreed on both parts. This song didn't do a ton for me, but I definitely have faith that this has album of the year potential.

I always thought that having woman fronting metal bands is good for the scene. Iam not the biggest fan of this music though.

Walking Dream on Abyss was such a great song. Was a gateway metal song for my two daughters who were aged 9 and 5 at the time. For that I’m grateful!

I can’t help but find it weird to see an AI-themed album like this when what we have barely qualifies as *true* AI. I’m holding off full judgement until I hear the whole thing but I’m pretty skeptical.

Kind of meh song, but hey we can't all compete with songs like RETURN TO ME.

These guys are coming to NZ this year apparently. I'll be giving them a miss however coz they suck.

It's a decent song, but not much beyond that. If anything, they're getting better at writing short acapella outros. As for the video, it seems that AI has been stuck in that "solid, but not quite there" zone for the past few months; it looks good during open shots, but whenever it zooms on the characters, shit gets wacky fast.

Thank you for your important contribution to the discussion.

Abyss has held up as one of the best power metal albums of the modern era. Incredibly excited for this new one even though there's no way they can top that.

I'm finding it hard to understand how "leashed" archers would be any less effective in combat than "unleashed" ones given that a bow and arrow can be fired while stationary.

You're welcome.

Such a special band. Their early albums are almost unlistenable to my ears. So sloppy and over the place.
With Time Stands Still things started to get so much better, and finally, Apex and Abyss are absolutely fantastic.

Yeah, those first two albums very much lacked focus. I've tried getting into them multiple times but I just can't, lol. They weren't very good at the melodeath parts and the power metal parts seemed shoved in. When they started moving more concretely toward power metal, they got good. I liked "Time Stands Still" and "Apex" is probably my favorite power metal album of the last decade, honestly. "Abyss" definitely rules too.

They got lucky with their new guitarist taking over songwriting and production.

I hope they have another "Apex" in them. That song is amazing.

I like the new song. The cover on the album is a downgrade, though, it's fine but the previous one were great. But the music is what counts and I like that first single.

New single and thankfully the video isn't AI, lol.

Yeah that was kind of meh again.

Man, its a fucked up reality when Amaranthe do it better than UTA.

Apex is a masterpiece; I was very surprised with that album. Is very heavy and it mixes some extreme metal sounds in there which makes it a delight to listen to. One of the best power metal bands of the last years. I am looking forward to this new material, and hope it ends in my AOTY list.

Another single.
I think I like this one better than the previous two (though I like the first one and... am ambivalent toward the second, in all reality).

Man these singles are underwhelming

I preordered the earbook right when preorders went live and it arrived today. I haven't listened to it yet, but uh... I can certainly say the foreword has a few things in it that I really don't like.

At least they're being honest about it I suppose. I guess we as consumer's are gonna have to start considering all this and making own choices going forward. I really don't see how an artist could look themselves in the mirror and like what they see if AI are doing everything for them tho.

Fuck that shit.

I will wait till I listen to the album before making a comment about it, but one can't say that this isn't modern. If it sounds good, we will have to see the results. Their last albums were pretty interesting though.

I just think the use of Midjourney and ChatGPT is profoundly lazy, and that bit about a possible future UTA album done entirely in AI... gross. Maybe they were joking, but gross. I don't think I'll be preordering their stuff in the future unless there's... you know, a total lack of AI. I was willing to let that music video slide (especially since none of the other ones used AI) but reading that left a sour taste in my mouth that probably won't go away, no matter how good the album is (I still haven't listened to it because I just don't want to anymore).

I wonder how stuff like this fits into MA's new AI content policy. I'm sure UTA won't be the last pre-existing band to flirt with AI generated, or AI assisted content. Maybe album pages on MA could use some additional check boxes to indicate whether it contains AI content or not.

Weird.

So, they admit they used AI to write this album and are trying to justify it by saying that fits the theme?

I won't be giving this album one second of my time.

Looking forward to listening to it once my CD arrives.

People are way too uptight about AI. The world changes - this is happening whether people like it or not. And I say that as a collector of CDs, which is a totally outdated medium. I still use streaming and digital music (as I'm sure everyone on this board does, even though it's essentially stealing music from the artists for free compared to how they used to make money).

I have my opinions you have yours.

I definitely don't like it and won't support it.

It's just so lazy and anti-artistic. Using Chat GPT to write lyrics is just embarrassing - any kind of real writer should be ashamed to admit that. And they could've paid for real art by someone who would've given them an actual hand-crafted product made with care. If they were this lazy I don't see why I should give their album my time. People always say this line about "new tech is here whether you like it or not" and sure, but you can still have standards.

The band is doing a listening party on Bandcamp where you can chat with them while going through the album in a couple hours. Should be interesting: https://unleashthearchers.bandcamp.com/ ... ning-party

I have to admit I didn't listened to Apex when I made that comment, only the single that was posted here. But after listening to the full album I loved it, it was a very interesting and modern take on power metal.