Phantasmagoria

Phantasmagoria is a gothic rock band from Zagreb, founded in 1988 by singer Tomi Phantasma, guitarist Robert Gelo and bassist Darko Toth. It grew out of the late-1980s post-punk scene after the end of the punk band Eksodus, in which Tomi played guitar, and took its name from The Damned's album Phantasmagoria.

Their debut single "Alex" (1988) went straight to number one on the alternative charts, followed in 1989 by "Poziv u raj" and "Ja gledam svojim očima". In 1990, at the last YURM festival, critics named them the best new alternative band. The video for "Better World" (1991) topped HRT's Hit depo chart, and "Isolated" (1992) was picked as one of the ten best Croatian videos of 1993 on the same show. In 1993 the programme Izvan struje named them among Croatia's best alternative bands, together with KUD Idijoti and Overflow.

Their dark sound is often compared with Joy Division, Bauhaus, The Sisters of Mercy, Fields of the Nephilim and Killing Joke, and the band won cult status in the Croatian underground. They opened for Iggy Pop at Šalata in Zagreb in 1994, played the Wave-Gotik-Treffen in Leipzig twice, Dark Nation Days in Vienna, Exit, Metalcamp and Viva La Pola, and shared stages with Christian Death, New Model Army, Type O Negative, Paradise Lost and Moonspell.

The current line-up is Tomi Phantasma (vocals), Alan Mance (bass), Miroslav "Miro" Miljković and Josip Vuksan (guitars), Faca (drums) and Davorka Dragojević (backing vocals). The playlist is their demo recordings from 1988 to 1990, with "Grad tihog očaja", "Alex", "Djevojka od bronce" and "Poludi", and covers of Joy Division, The Stooges and The Cure.