Nightfall
Astron Black and the Thirty Tyrants
Rating
Style: Black Metal with Gothic parts 
Release date: August 30th 2010
 

Efthimis Karadimas has put the plug back in the band Nightfall. After 5 years of absence and with a complete new team of players he is back with a new album. I try not to look back at earlier albums and will look at today's relevance of this album. Putting Jörg Uken behind the drums was a good choice; he puts in a tight thrashy drumming style. With Evan Hansley (Karmic Link) on guitar and Stathis Kassios on keyboards the line-up is completed.

In my humble opinion the band could have used the keyboards more up front and in more songs generally. When Stathis uses the keys it brings something extra to the music, more atmosphere and the music sounds less average, it gives me a Septic Flesh kind of vibe. Just listen to the song "Asebeia" and you will understand what I am saying, it gives an orchestral atmosphere. Karadimas vocals are very dark, aggressive and fit the music, only the occasional clean ones are minor.

Most of the songs are rather average, but some stick out. For me that is for example the track "Archon Basileus" which reminds me of early Crematory albums. The excellent guitar riff in the song is the surplus. ""Ambassador of Mass" is another song that makes me happy. Besides the at times excellent riffs, Mr. Hensley is also able to play some nice melodic lead parts in several songs. There is enough variety in tempo on the album, sometimes it is fast, but there are also a lot of slower almost doomy parts. I think that fans of the earlier Nightfall work will appreciate the new stuff. For those who don't know the band at all, this might be the album where to step in for the first time.

First I thought that this album would be another average one, but after a while I started to appreciate it more. That's why they got an above average rating from me. A relevant comeback.


Tracklist

01. Intro

02. Astron Black

03. Astronomica/Saturnian Moon

04. Astra Planeta/We Chose The Sun

05. Ambassador Of Mass

06. The Criterion

07. Asebeia

08. I-I

09. Archon Basileus

10. Proxima Centauri/Dead Bodies

11. The Thirty Tyrants

12. Epsilon Lyrae

Label: Metal Blade Records
Distribution: Target (Denmark)
Reviewed by:

Reinier de Vries

Date: August 24th 2010
Website: www.myspace.com/nightfallgr