Phantoms is the debut studio album by American rock band Acceptance, released on April 26, 2005, by Columbia.

It has gained notoriety as being one of the albums released by Sony BMG in the mid-2000s containing their controversial Extended Copy Protection software package, that resulted in lawsuits and settlements to consumers.

The group released a self-produced EP, titled Lost for Words , in late 2000 through independent label Rocketstar Records.

[1] The band wished to release it through an independent label in order to build a fan base and tour for a period of time, before creating an album for Columbia.

Columbia thought this was a good idea,[2] and as a result, the Black Lines to Battlefields EP was released in 2003 through The Militia Group.

[15] It was promoted with an appearance at The Bamboozle and Flipside festivals, and a May 2005 tour with Vendetta Red, Head Automatica and A Static Lullaby.

[21][22] On January 31, 2006, it was announced that bassist Ryan Zwiefelhofer had left the band, citing that he needed to "find the place that defines who I am.

"[4] In 2016, Johnny Loftus from AllMusic revisited Phantoms and doubled his initial review score from two out of five stars to four out of five stars, saying that "Phantoms is slick and melodic, drawing its tension from the careful multi-tracking of Jason Vena's vocals and layers of guitars," but leaving the review textually unchanged.