Band: Nightfall
Release: Cassiopeia (Album)
Release Date: Out now
Occasionally, a band will blow you away by breathing new life into a tired genre with a visionary album that sounds new and interesting… Nightfall are not that band.
After more than 20 years in the business, these veterans of the Greek extreme metal scene are masters of producing albums that are consistent, if unexciting. Their ninth studio album sees the guys take a more melancholy direction.
‘Oberon & Titania’ has been singled out by many as a high point on the record, but we really can’t see why. The backbone of the song isn’t terrible, but there are plenty of other factors which ruin the listening experience: The ‘none can break the broken’ guitar motif is weak (to put it politely), the shredding in the guitar solo sounds messy rather than impressive, and the section where a piano doubles the lead guitar line just sounds ridiculous.
‘Colonize Cultures’ one of the stronger tracks on the record, but in this context that’s not exactly glowing praise. The chugging single-note riff is particularly brutal – as with many great black metal riffs it is simple and effective.
Cassiopeia heavily features symphonic keyboard passages, courtesy of Stathis Kassios, which in places are bleak and atmospheric, but elsewhere (c.f. the end of ‘Colonize Cultures’) sound cheap and tacky.
Nightfall draw on a variety of influences across this album – ‘Stellar Parallax’ has a strong folk metal feel and riffs that hark back to the days of NWOBHM, for example, while ‘Akhenation…’ incorporates some interesting proggy sections – which certainly helps to make the record more listenable.
Looking at the bigger picture though, this album really is just the sum of its influences, and not an attempt to create anything particularly original. It’s a solid listen, but it’s hardly ground-breaking.
Cassiopeia is a constellation named after a mythological Greek princess who was banished to the night sky for boasting about her daughter’s beauty. If this latest offering suffered a similar fate, we wouldn’t be all that cut up about it.
5/10
Reviewer: Solomon Radley
