NITE - Cult of the Serpent Sun
Season of Mist
Here we have the third full length by this four piece Blackened Heavy Metal act from San Francisco, California. I will have more to say about their genre tagline further along. But I just wanna say this release came in for review earlier this year. I thought that I had written a review for it. After checking I found out no I never posted a review. Also I just saw NITE perform last week and I'm still hyped up by em. I've got my physical copy of this release and well I've got a lot to say.
First off the Blackened Heavy Metal tagline is kinda interesting. Yeah I know it's a thing nowadays. But the fact is that NITE musically are a full on Metal act. I mean the influences you notice are pure 1980's. You'll hear some MAIDEN -esque stuff along with MERCIFUL FATE / KING DIAMOND influences. All of that is courtisy of guitarist / vocalist Van Labrakis and guitarist / backing vocalist Scott Hoffman.
These two not only provide some cool as fuck riffs but add in great solos. I'm talking about individual soloing, switch off soloing and combined soloing. Yeah if you're a Metal guitar lover then here ya go. The fuckin rhythm section keeping up with those guitars is also savage as hell. Props to thunderous bassist Avinash Mittur and the damm good drum work by Patrick Crawford.
As far as the whole Blackened thing goes Van Labrakis vocals come off as something of a blast furnace DEATH METAL style. On the Death Doomish cut "The Mystic" it shows. Of course that's after the three opening songs which are total headbanging rockers. Then again lyrically NITE are all about the occult. So there ya go.
In the end NITE's third album is a winner in my not so humble opinion. Then again if you're into Metal well here ya go true believers. I'm unfortunately part of some sites where I see people complain that there's no cool new metal. Well hey here's some great new Metal to bang your fuckin head to, along with blasting out of the speakers.
As much as I like the three opening cuts which define this album: "Cult of the Serpent Sun", "Skull" and "Crow (Fear the Night)". There's "The Last Blade" and "Carry On" which are absolutly amazing on the second half. Basically this is a rocking album for 2025. It's definitely a favorite for me so is it for you?
https://www.season-of-mist.com/
LISTEN HERE:
https://nitemetal.bandcamp.com/album/cult-of-the-serpent-sun
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