Review Summary: A space odyssey through the death and rebirth of heavy metal... Neat.
Van Labrakis is a lovely Greek man that by some unknown twist of life crash landed in San Francisco's Bay Area to front a badass metal band. After a few stints in acts like Satan’s Wrath, he formed Nite, a band that likes to play heavy metal and sing about space dudes travelling through the dark corners of the cosmos half naked, in search of the sun. Everything is completely normal so far, isn't it? There's also an interesting rumor going on, that our gone but never forgotten king of all things heavy, Mr. Lemmy Kilmister of Motörhead fame, has possessed Labrakis vocal chords and speaks through him from his grave, something that Labrakis, a metalhead from head to toe, has obviously denied with remarkable humbleness and upmost respect for the British legend. Labrakis’ spectral grunts are one of the first things that will slap your ears when Nite's sophomore record,
Voices From the Kronian Moon, blasts through your speakers of choice, but most certainly, it won’t be the last.
The band sounds simply AMAZING on this second album, and this is not an overstatement. For an album cooked mainly in Labrakis' kitchen, it can easily rival any heavy metal classic you can think of in terms of overall production. Stylistically, and while the band was founded on the principle of making a black metal and NWOBHM hybrid just because, their debut did showcase the immense potential of the concept, but I feel it missed the mark by a hair with songs that went on for too long without unraveling anything that would really stick. This is the most important element of contrast with [i]Voices...[i], because two songs in, you already feel the need of revisiting, and the culprit is a wicked tune that serves as the hook in the chin after the opener: "Kronian Moon".
Let me tell you about the day I stumbled upon this track on Youtube thanks to a very carefully curated algorithm that has been tanking through clips of "My Neighbor Totoro", "Ponyo", ten different versions of "Baby Shark" and Japanese lullabies for babies. Nite somehow made it through all this drivel, reaching my ears, and saving my soul from eternal kid’s musical torment. "Kronian Moon" is terrific, a heavy metal piece that covers so much ground in so little time that it left me in awe, and that day was well spent on a maniac loop in which the song's guitar leads and Labrakis soothing roar would brand its mark on my brain for the rest of the month like sacred fire on pious flesh.
Now, "Kronian Moon" is a certified banger, but what about the rest? Well, Nite's second album was designed to be a concept album, a metaphor for how everyone of us journey through life in search of ultimate well-being and peace of mind. An idea that has been illustrated on the cover art created by Spanish talented mural artist Deih, presenting a mysterious figure confronting what seems to be a cosmic terror, possibly symbolizing the uncertainty of our very own existence. It's the same sort of enigma that bands like Iron Maiden, who are an immediate influence on Nite's sound, had explored on albums like
Seventh Son of a Seventh Son. By the way, the Iron Maiden comparison doesn't end here, as Nite also likes a good ol’ gallop through the stars, like they show in tracks like "Edge of the Night". The thing is I don’t feel tey are ripping off the classics, instead, they are paying a proper homage to them, and the love put into that effort just shows.
As I said before, Nite has a sound of their own, and for a metal band with only two records out, and a third one being on the works as I type these words, this is not an easy feat. The metal world, as you know, is as crowded as my morning commute through mid-Japan's railway system, but somehow Nite pull off their sound with much style and substance, preserving the essence while channeling it with renewed energy. The guitar work of Labrakis himself and Scott Hoffman, who is also the axeman of classic metal enthusiasts High Spirits, is no doubt one of the strongest points of Nite's second album. From the melancholia of the melodies that drive the above mentioned "Kronian Moon" or the intro arpeggio of "Liber Ex Doctrina", to the crushing riff work that dominate songs like "Last Scorpion", and needless to say, the crazy solos they both unleash along the album. The two guitarists exhibit a level of cohesion that speaks volumes of the work they have done behind the scenes after the first album, when they barely knew each other.
The last two tracks, "Thorns" and "The Trident" fall on the darkest spectrum of the band's sound, reminiscent of names like Tribulation, coating the grandeur of 80s heavy metal with a death metal hull that at this point is becoming the band’s signature. Avinash Mittur's steadfast handling of bass duties and Patrick Crawford's colossal drumming style also need to be addressed, since they provide a robust base for Labrakis and Hoffman to build on their craft. If there's one thing I would single out as a mildly negative critic, it would be the after effect of Labrakis' mollifying growls, which work wonders on a single track, but its lack of variation starts to show after a few songs have kicked in, which may be a detriment for newcomers when traversing the record the first time.
But the virtues of
Voices of the Kronian Moon are many, and its swift runtime would certainly appease the short-attention span syndrome that most of the audience (we) suffer in these modern times. Considering the leap in quality between the first and second album, I'm most confident in saying that Nite is one of the most promising metal acts of the last years, torch bearers of the golden era of heavy music and potential spearheads of a revival fever that bands like Hallas or Haunt have also been part of in their respective fields. The legacy and future of heavy metal is definitely in good hands.
