NIGHTFALL – “ASTRON BLACK AND THE THIRTY TYRANTS”
METAL BLADE (2010)

Metal Church - The Present Wasteland

When it comes to Greek extreme metal, the main ambassadors of the scene are and have always been Rotting Christ, however it was not long after Sakis Tolis and Co begun their unholy musical crusade that two equally important bands made their first steps in the still evolving Greek Metal scene – one being Septic Flesh and the other being Efthimis Karadimas’ Nightfall. For some obscure reason I never manage to get my hands on any of the band’s early Symphonic Black Metal releases and when I finally did decide to invest in these Athenians back in 1997 (see “Lesbian Show” album), my impression of Nightfall and their abilities was not what most people would describe as flattering. Having lost all motivation, I completely disregarded any of the releases that followed and it is really thanks to Metal Blade’s decision to sign the band that brought their latest album “Astron Black And The Thirty Tyrants” to my attention, and I am glad indeed that this has happened as Nightfall’s eighth full length release is one of the best albums that I have heard so far this year!

Thought I was granted access to that release much in advance of its release date, I deliberately waited till I was in what I believed to be the right mood in order to start investing in it. That would have been totally understandable providing that what I had to face was another “Lesbian Show”, and album full of Rock sounding riffs and Goth affiliated melodies. Well, though elements of that ‘side’ of the band’s character are still audible here, what “Astron Black And The Thirty Tyrants” has to offer is a totally different musical proposition – one in which massive crunchy guitar riffs and dark/ haunting epic keyboard melodies play a predominant role! Kardimas and Co have managed to come up with twelve new composition which though are of average duration and quite basic in their structure, they somehow manage to bring on to the surface elements that betray high levels of musicianship and work more as a unit rather than individual pieces of music. That means that, rather that choosing to invest in only a couple of songs during the course of a day, you are most likely to find yourselves listening to the whole album not simply in one go but also quite a few consecutive times.

It is truly magnificent how compositions as diverse as the rhythmical riff-orientated opus “Astron Black” co-exist with the more dramatic and slower in speed “Astronomica / Saturnian Moon”, but that is mainly attributed to the role that Stathis Cassios’ keyboards play in the band – keys which not only create a much fitting dark/eerie atmosphere but also a unifying feeling amongst each of the songs on offer. Though “Astra Planeta / We Chose The Sun” is a very enjoyable Goth Metal piece, it can hardly be compared with the magnificence of “Ambassador Of Mass” – a mid tempo guitar-orientated opus whose epic choral refrain is one of the highlights of the album. Fans of mid 90s R.Christ will adore “The Criterion” and will certainly appreciate the magnificence of the slow atmospheric monster that listens to the name “Asebeia”. As far as I am personally concerned, though, the best moment of the album starts with the eerie acoustic/choral intro “I-I” and fully develops/expresses itself in the Morbid Angel influenced riff orientated Epos “Archon Basileus” – a song that also features the best refrain that I have heard in ages. The final three compositions on offer, namely “Proxima Centauri / Dead Bodies”, “The Thirty Tyrants” and “Epsilon Lyrae” operate in a similar manner as they combine heavy mid tempo riffs with epic-sounding dark keyboard melodies and in doing so they provide a solid ending to this amazing album.

One thing I realised many years ago, and especially through my role as a music journalist, is that the older I get the less chances I have of coming across of albums that are capable of sweeping me off my feet rather than providing me with a few nice moments. What Nightfall’s “Astron Black And The Thirty Tyrants” managed to do to me was to remind me how it is to listen to music through the ears of a sixteen year old and that, my friends, is priceless! Nightfall era 2010 is an intelligent band that knows how to provide enough layers in their music to make it sound interesting while still coming straight from the heart; that is the reason why you need to support them in their quest and that is also the reason why you should not miss the opportunity of adding “Astron Black And The Thirty Tyrants” into your music collection. Is this the album of the year for me? That might quite possibly be the case!

John Stefanis

Rating: ***** (5.0/5.0)

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