Nightfall – Cassiopeia

Almost two and a half years after the release of ”Astron Black And The Thirty Tyrants”, Nightfall come back more certain than ever the last fifteen years (at least) and they release their ninth full-length album, simply entitled ”Cassiopeia”. Those who paid good attention to its predecessor, could feel that this next move for the band would be of critical importance. The aforementioned previous album managed to put the band back to global attention, regarding also the fact they signed to a colossal record company like Metal Blade Records. It is now that all haters will bite their tongues and the band can claim a glorious return.

”Cassiopeia” is easily and very simply better than ”Astron Black…” in all terms, musicianship, material’s flexibility and flow, as a whole and above all, production wise. I don’t know how the band made this crystal clear sound and especially how the leads on the guitars came out so amazing, but the whole result sounds like THIS was the album that the band was preparing after the hiatus between 2004 to 2010. The two guitarists can claim a great leading role to ”Cassiopeia” as their riffs build heavy structures which evolve as great as possible through the eleven tracks of this album.

Leader and vocalist Efthimis Karadimas sounds even better than the previous album, it is easier to understand some of his lyrics without having a booklet in your hands and this can be only positive. The album combines many styles, though the basis is (and ought to be) death metal, but in a more melodic and experimental form. Some doomy and blackened outbursts aren’t absent and they add extra atmosphere, some clever keyboards hold a decent role but fill in some possible gaps and if you catch them in the backgrounds of the double guitar attacks, then you’ll realize the essence of their use.

In such albums it’s difficult to choose some favourite or more special tracks, on the other hand, I can’t help but praising hymns like ”Oberon & Titania”, ”Stellar Parallax”, ”The Reptile Gods” and the two closing tracks ”The Sand Reckoner” and ”Astropolis”. When an album closes ideally, then the whole result always leaves a better taste and feeling in the end. Lyrically we are dealing with arrogance in many forms, but the band proves everything but arrogant in this release. They chose their compositions carefully and they built this album with certainty and with final result the best Nightfall album since ”Lesbian Show”.

Some fans which happen to encounter the band for the first time, will surely follow them in the future. There lies a bright and enlightening future for the Athenians if they go on this way. Some others which followed the band from the first albums may feel disappointment. In the end, you can never satisfy them all, right? Personally this album made me smile, as I was expecting it to sound like it does. I can tell that the next one can be even better if they set their basis on these last two albums. The band keeps walking in straight lines and if they don’t deviate their root, better are to come.