Band : Nightfall
Album title : Astron Black And The Thirty Tyrants
Labe l: Metal Blade Records
Distributor : Rough Trade Benelux
Release date : 27/08/2010
Release : CD

If we hear the words “Greece” and “Black Metal”, we automatically think of Rotting Christ and nothing else. But then we are forgetting about Septic Flesh, Firewind and this Nightfall. Although Nightfall have already worked hard since their debut in 1992, they never really knew a breakthrough. The band never had a stable line-up and this provoked a change of genre throughout the years. The first three albums were Doom-Death metal albums, whereas the next four albums were more Black-Death oriented.

This last album, Astron Black And The Thirty Tyrants, is a combination of all these genres. It took singer, Efthimis Karadimas, four years to sort everything out, to gather a new line-up and to release a new full-length under the wings of Metal Blade Records for the very first time. When you listen to the album for the very first time, you can clearly notice the influence the multiple member changes have had on the band’s sound. The Death Metal of Nile, the Black Metal of Rotting Christ and even the Heavy Metal of Firewind can be heard, just because some members of these bands have joined forces in Nightfall.

Actually, we can divide the album into three parts. The first part of the album contains the second until the fifth track. These four songs are definitely the best songs on the album. In “Astron Black”, you can clearly hear the influence of Rotting Christ, whereas in “Astronomica/ Saturnian Moon “you can hear some passages which make you think of Cradle Of Filth. This latter song is by far the best song on the album. It feels like you’re making a journey through the history of Greece. The combination of the grunts and the clean vocals really make you shiver. Also the use of keyboards is genius, which also counts for the next track. Until here, you will be very pleased with this album and you’ll definitely be curious for more. The second part of the album contains the sixth until the eleventh track. These songs are far more boring. Perhaps you can say that the tenth song “Proxima Centauri/ Dead Bodies” is the best one of these six tracks, but then you’ll definitely have to do an effort to get into it. The third and last part of the album contains the final song, “Epsilon Lyrae”, which is an up tempo song and the perfect song to end the album.

Luckily for the band, the best songs can be found in the beginning and in the end of the album. I think they call this ‘the primacy and recency effect’ …

70/100

Nick Tronckoe.