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Nightmare - Dead Sun

Published November 26 2016


*
=Staff's pick

Infected
Of Sleepless Minds
Tangled In The Roots
Red Marble & Gold
Ikarus
Indifference
Dead Sun*
Seeds Of Agony*
Inner Sanctum*
Serpentine*
Starry Skies Gone Black*

Genre Heavy Metal
Maggy Luyten
Vocals
Tracks 11
Franck Milleliri
Guitar
Running time 53 Min.
Matt Asselberghs
Guitar
Label AFM Records
Yves Campion
Bass
Release November 25, 2016
Olivier Casula
Drums
Country France
-
Keyboard
Producer Joost Van Den Broek
Similar artists ---

Even if the French metallers Nightmare have put out albums for 32 years with different lineups (although being on hiatus for pretty much the whole 90's), the band's music has completely passed me by. With 9 records out before this one, of which I, needless to say, know nothing about, I approached the new deal Dead Sun with a little bit of hesitation, I must admit. My initial bias of this being some kind of old school dated experience was soon taken out of effect though and I actually like what the band is able to put to the table.

It's 11 songs of rather powerful heavy metal with a few bits and pieces akin to power metal and just the fact that they have chosen to not include a ballad on the record is something that shows dignity and honor, because all too many bands put meaningless light and greasy songs on their records just for the sake of having a song that may make the outcome over the record more diverse and maybe also hoping for non-metal fans to have a song that might fit their need too. I'm not saying that all ballads ever written suck big-time, but I'm more looking for a good point to have one and if those songs don't really hold a high standard they're in my opinion better off staying as a demo version.

The album contains lots of hooks and fine melodies and I think that they're really good at keeping the momentum going over the whole record. The first 6 songs are definitely rather good, but it's not until the last 5 ones that the record fully hits its best moments and to me the order of the tracks therefore seems quite strange, really. The new vocalist, Belgian born Maggy Luyten, is a good match to the music behind her and if I hadn't read the info sheet before listening to this record for the first time, maybe I would have been clueless in the beginning that it's actually a woman singing these vocal lines.

All in all, a very satisfying heavy metal record and if you're, like I was, unfamiliar with the band, maybe you should check it out anyway, because you might like it, and if you don't, well, at least you gave it a try. And an advice to myself would be: Look at the promo pictures before thinking that the band comprises a bunch of old guys that are trying to resurrect an already sunken ship, because 4 out of 5 members of the band have joined the ranks since 2004 and are absolutely nowhere near retirement of any kind.

See also review of: Genetic Disorder

Performance
Originality
Production
Vocals
Songwriting

7

5

7

7

7

 
Summary



7 chalices of 10 - Tobbe


Related links:

www.nightmare-metal.com
www.facebook.com/nightmare