AFM Records [Release date: 06.06.24]
Formed in 1979, French Power Metal band, Nightmare have been worshipping the mighty riff for 11 albums now.
Their 12th album, Encrypted, sees ex Songbird songbird, Barbara Mogore (a smart bit of recruitment by Yves Campion), fronting the band for the first time.
With this new album, Encrypted, the band hit the road to hell running, and they do so with a refreshing commitment to a powerful, timeless style of Power Metal, liberally mixed in with other strains of the Heavy Metal genre.
Opener, ‘Nexus Inferus’ mainlines us into a world of muscular Metal, where a towering cliff face of pounding rhythms constantly threatens to overwhelm the guitars, the keyboards and the vocals. It never does, but that’s the plan of course. Mostly thanks to Mogore, who rises above this metal maelstrom to deliver a considered, carefully calibrated vocal.
The band like to take their up-market Power Metal on a daring journey to the extremes at times.
Producer, Simone (DGM) Mularoni is a slick genre craftsman whose mix and match choices – as on ‘The Blossom Of My Hate’, where the harsh male vocals link death metal hands with Mogore’s beseeching counterpoint – feel more organic than mechanical.
And again with this reprogrammed version of ‘Eternal Winter’, the classic Nightmare song (from 2009), released last month as one in an advance guard of trailer tracks.
Its verse has been roughened up with harsh vocals, bleeding straight into Magore’s smoothly vocalised responses. That calculated light and shade forms the perfect intro to the haunting, hymn like chorus.
Sinister marching metal song, ‘Voices From The Other side’ slows the pace. A welcome variation. The bell tolls as the guitars paint a darkly colourful soundscape in strong, sure, strident brushstrokes. Cool melody too.
There’s more, and the quality just doesn’t dip. Fine album. ****
Review by Brian McGowan
Featured Artist: JOSH TAERK
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Power Plays w/c 24 June 2024
BRAVE LIAISON No Two Sides The Same (indie)
RHABSTALLION Going Nowhere (indie)
THE MERCURY RIOTS LA Girls (indie)
RENDEZVOUS POINT Presence (Long Branch Records)
MINE ROAD Tightrope (indie)
SAINT TRAGEDY Asking For A Ghost (indie)
THE HOME TEAM Walk This World With Me (Thriller Records)
Featured Albums w/c 24 June 2024
09:00-12:00 ATLANTIS DRIVE (Pride & Joy Music)
12:00-13:00 The Best of 2003-2023
14:00-16:00 IANN BRENNAN Getaway (AGR Records)
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