Er zijn van die nummers die al na de eerste noot een plaats op mijn favorietenlijst krijgen. Prince of Darkness (naar John Carpenter’s gelijknamige horrorklassieker) van The Night Eternal is er zo eentje. De herkenbare 80’s gothic overtoon in stem van zanger Ricardo Baum had maar enkele seconden nodig mijn aandacht te trekken.
Wat je te horen krijgt: sinistere heavy metal met een ultrastrak ritme en oldschool riffs. Ik zou met superlatieven kunnen gooien, maar laat het me hierop houden: het bijbehorende album ‘Fatale’ maakt kans op een podiumplaats in mijn top 10 voor 2023.
Fatale verscheen op 14 juli 2023 via Van Records.
Luister ook naar: Demon Head
Lees
From their self-titled debut EP in 2019 to their first album, Moonlit Cross, two years later, THE NIGHT ETERNAL’s ascent has been swift and assured. The German quintet’s aesthetic has been firm from the beginning – melodic-yet-moody heavy metal with more than a hint of hard rock’s diabolical past – but even the transition from the EP to the full-length proved that their vision still had infinitely shadowy corridors to explore. “Bend, but don’t break,” as the maxim goes, and THE NIGHT ETERNAL return another two years later with a full-length exploring more shadows than ever.
Titled Fatale, THE NIGHT ETERNAL’s second album immediately conjures an intoxicating aura: harder and heavier and definitely DARKER, and yet also somehow smoother and more mysterious. Dynamics play a key here on Fatale; while the Germans still rock hard, a keen grasp of nuance colors these nine anthems, almost purple velvet in atmosphere. Fittingly, their already-ace melodicism bristles with an anthemic energy even when taking decidedly darker steps into the Beyond. What results is, irrevocably, a startlingly unique version of THE NIGHT ETERNAL – a sound and style that can truly be called their own.
As the band explain, "Our attempt for Fatale was to make THE NIGHT ETERNAL sound even more like ourselves. It should be recognizable for everyone that it's us after just a few seconds of listening. We tried to simultaneously make the melodies and riffs catchier and also to give the overall sound a harder, more sinister and timeless touch."
No truer words spoken. Catchier, harder, more sinister, and above all timeless, Fatale is sympathetically rendered in a powerfully crystal-clear production courtesy of Marco Brinkmann, finished off by Arthur Rizk’s mastering. Huge and spacious but magickally retaining an intimacy and mystery, THE NIGHT ETERNAL’s second long-player sounds and feels stadium-ready much like their foundational heroes Judas Priest, Iron Maiden, and the Scorpions. But again, it cannot be overstated how Fatale decisively establishes the band as a unique entity all themselves.
Those who thrill to the dark passions of Tribulation, The Devils Blood, In Solitude, and Unto Others, prepare for reckoning with THE NIGHT ETERNAL’s Fatale.
