NIGHTMARE — Dead Sun (review)

NIGHTMARE — Dead Sun album cover Album · 2016 · Power Metal Buy this album from MMA partners
4/5 ·
adg211288
One of the biggest shocks within the current power metal scene within the last couple of years has to be that the brothers Jo and David Amore had left their band Nightmare. Jo Amore had been with the band since 1980, originally as the drummer in the eighties and after getting back together in 1999 as the vocalist, which was the point that his brother David Amore took his place behind the kit. They weren't original members, that distinction has long been the sole claim of bassist Yves Campion, but Jo Amore at least may as well have been since the band's first release came after he joined and since changing to vocals he was a massive part of the band's heavy/power metal sound. I'm not sure of exactly what happened to prompt their joint exit in 2015, but it's been difficult to imagine Nightmare without Jo Amore's Dio-esque vocals. Nevertheless the French band is back with a new line-up and their tenth full-length album, Dead Sun (2016).

The ironic thing about all this is, I didn't actually enjoy the previous Nightmare album The Aftermath (2014) all that much, to the point that I'd even call it the group's weakest album. Given what happened with the Amore brothers next, it certainly wasn't a good note for them to exit on, so it's been my hope that despite any other misgivings I may have, that a new line-up would actually revitalise Nightmare.

And that's exactly what's happened. Now fronted by Magali Luyten (Virus IV, Beautiful Sin et al), the band have found a perfect vocalist to fill the void left by Jo Amore. Because of Magali Luyten's classic metal vocal style the band's switch from male to female vocals hasn't actually affected their music all that much. On the instrumental front they are sticking with the tried and true modern heavy/power metal sound with a few touches of thrash in the riffs and few quick uses of symphonic parts in the background, but that's actually what I think we needed to hear at this point after The Aftermath included some less typical ideas for them which to my ears at least didn't work. The band treats us to eleven solid tracks which may just be their best group of songs since the Genetic Disorder (2007) album. Dead Sun as an album doesn't break the mould, but boy does it hit the spot. A few key tracks for me are Red Marble & Gold, Dead Sun, Ikarus and Serpentine, on which Kelly Sundown Carpenter (Darkology) also lends his voice to, proving a good pairing with Magali Luyten.

While the music on Dead Sun does have a way to go before it could be considered on par with the best Nightmare works of the Amore era, it does the job it needed to. It proves that Nightmare is still a viable group. I'm excited to hear the releases that will hopefully follow this one.
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Nightfly wrote:
more than 2 years ago
Have this on order, sounds great from what I've heard so far.

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